


When a Good Man Must Wear a Mask

by spirithorse



Category: Code Geass
Genre: 100 Themes Challenge, Heavily influenced by Marvel, M/M, superhero au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-15
Updated: 2016-07-19
Packaged: 2018-06-02 10:01:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 29
Words: 30,911
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6562051
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spirithorse/pseuds/spirithorse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Black Knights had started out as a force of good until they were dragged into the rotten heart at the center of Pendragon. Fractured and broken, they must band together to take back their city and save the world from the people who would have it destroyed. (A superhero AU that's been heavily influenced by Marvel, both the comics and the movies).</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Water

**Author's Note:**

  * For [touchreceptors](https://archiveofourown.org/users/touchreceptors/gifts).



> This AU was requested by an anon on my tumblr for my Month of Code Geass, and then touchreceptors  wanted more of it. Thus, the idea ran away with me. A good portion of the prompts are taken from the [100 prompts list](http://a-momentary-equilibrium-issue.tumblr.com/post/36447860096/100-theme-challenge). These were posted to my tumblr, but this is the cleaned up and in order version.

He should have listened to C.C’s warning, but he hadn’t thought that V.V. would be anything like her. Then again, his first warning should have been the fact that he didn’t know much about C.C. and her powers in the first place.

Lelouch tried to jerk himself back from V.V, managing to pull himself physically away from the boy, but one part of his mind was still latched around the boy’s. He heard V.V. laugh before there was a tug on his mind. Lelouch tried to dig his heels in but he was pulled forward.

For a moment, he skated along the crystal-like shield that was around V.V’s mind and then he was shoved back into his own mind, Lelouch mentally clawing at the presence that followed. He tried to throw up his own shield but V.V. just pushed past it.

He screamed as he felt it shatter, V.V’s mind lingering over his before plunging it and picking it apart. Lelouch could practically hear the boy cackling as he nudged things to the surface, Lelouch trying to slap V.V. away. The boy just laughed and shoved his way further in.

_“This is the best you can do? Your mother would be ashamed.”_

Lelouch shook his head, trying to raise another shield up. If he could set up enough shields then maybe V.V. would have to slow his charge. But he couldn’t get them up in time, V.V. ripping through the ones that he set up with ease.

_“C.C. would be ashamed. You’ve spent years with her and you know nothing.”_  V.V. seemed to find something that amused him, because Lelouch felt something twist free. He had a moment to wonder what V.V. had found before he was plunged into darkness. Lelouch floundered for somewhere to orient himself, only finding V.V’s laughter.  _“Consider this a punishment for not trying harder, and a promise.”_

Lelouch didn’t have time to think over what V.V. had said, he was too busy tumbling into a ruined city.

He stumbled on landing, reaching out for something to balance himself against. He hissed as he cut his palm on a twisted bit of metal, cradling the hand close to his chest. Lelouch looked around, automatically reaching out to find any minds, but there was nothing but silence.

Lelouch whimpered, the sound echoing oddly in the ruined city. He bit his lip and kept shuffling forward, looking for any signs of life.

To his eyes, there seemed to be nothing but broken and twisted buildings. Cars were tossed about at random, Lelouch staring at an SUV that he saw flung halfway up a building. He swallowed and walked faster through the city. It just seemed like random damage, with no clue as to what caused it. It was like no one had even tried to fight back.

Lelouch pushed on faster, nearly jogging as he worked his way towards the center of Pendragon. All of this couldn’t have happened for no reason. There was always someone behind destruction, some villain or kid who didn’t understand their powers. Pendragon couldn’t just go silent, it was impossible.

He towards the great fountain, speeding up when he saw the bodies that were sprawled around it. In a way, it was a relief to see them because it meant that he could figure out what happened, but another part of him wanted to run away. But he needed to know what had happened.

Lelouch inched towards the fountain, looking around nervously. He made it all the way over to the fountain without running into anything, the fact making him sweat more. Whatever had done this to Pendragon would come back around, and he needed to know what to do about it.

He circled around the fountain, his eyes widening when he saw police officers and people in army uniforms sprawled on one side of the fountain, their blood turning the water red. They looked like they had been clawed at by wild animals as well as shot at, which didn’t give him any clues about what had happened to the city.

He came around to the other side of the fountain, freezing when he saw the four bodies sprawled out around the base. Some part of him had always known that they would be there, but he had been too distracted by the city.

Lelouch took two more steps forward before he couldn’t keep going. He was shaking too badly to walk forward, Lelouch clutching at his arms to keep himself from reaching out. If he touched it, it would become real, and he didn’t want any of this to be real.

Closing his eyes didn’t help either, the images were burned into his memory. Kallen with her arms burned up to her elbows. Gino with his neck broken. Suzaku bleeding out from a gunshot wound. C.C. stabbed through the heart.

He slapped a hand over his mouth, feeling bile rise in the back of his throat. Lelouch shook his head, refusing to open his eyes just to double check if any of his team was alive. He didn’t want to see that again, except that it wouldn’t leave him alone.

Distantly, he could hear someone laughing, the sound coming in and out on the breeze. It was the only sound in the silent city, and it grated on his nervous. Lelouch turned towards it, grateful for the distraction from the bodies of his team. He rounded on the noise, looking around for whatever was causing it.

For a moment, he thought a shadowy figure, Lelouch reaching out. He felt the shaky presence of another mind, latching on and pulling as hard as he could.

The laughter stopped with a yelp, Lelouch jerking back with a gasp. He stumbled back, confused when he found himself staring at the inside of a warehouse instead of the ruined city. Lelouch looked at the person screaming on the floor in front of him, widening his eyes at the sight of the boy.

It took Lelouch a moment to come back to himself, his hand shaking as he threw up a quick mental shield. It didn’t look like V.V. was trying to push into his mind again, it didn’t even look like the boy could. He was practically curled up on the ground, clutching at his head.

V.V. shot an angry look at him, reaching out a shaking hand to point. “You think you’ve won? You’re just an overconfident boy.”

Lelouch refused to comment, too busy trying to defend himself. He still felt dirty from where V.V. had managed to push through before, he wasn’t going to be caught off guard again. He watched the boy advance towards him, trying to get his legs to move, but they were as shaky as they had been during the vision. Lelouch gave his head a hard shake, trying to get it clear enough to face off against whatever V.V. was going to throw at him.

He only managed to get himself slightly upright before the full force of V.V’s mind crashed down on him. Lelouch pushed against the deluge, managing to hold against the pressure before his shields started to crumble. They flaked away under the pressure, Lelouch screaming as the last one fell and he was thrown back into the ruined city. 


	2. Mirrors

Suzaku stared at the body on the floor, not sure what to make of the ten year old boy who was sprawled there. He circled around the body, almost expecting to find another handler waiting.

There had been others in the warehouse when they had first pushed in, children with powers being egged on by their handlers. It had been a shock for all of them, especially when they had to clear out the whole thing. It was that or deal with constant attacks to Pendragon that would only keep escalating. Suzaku didn’t think that there had been a good way to deal with any of them, considering that the other members of Project Orange had suffered casualties. They had tried to avoid the children, but there were still some that had been caught in the crossfire. The kid at his feet looked like one of them.

Suzaku sighed and knelt down to get a better look at the body. He reached out to touch the boy’s shoulder only to have it grabbed. Suzaku looked over, not surprised to see C.C. leaning over him.

The woman gave him a long glare before tugging him away. “Leave him.”

“Why?”

“I don’t want him trying to escape.”

Suzaku stared at C.C. in shock, tempted to ignore her. The Black Knights didn’t make a habit of killing children, and he wanted to make sure that it had been an accident. The last thing they all needed was the guilt of knowing that they could have saved more lives. He reached out for the boy again, stopping when C.C. reached for his arm again.

He stood up, turning to glare at her. “How can he escape?”

She gave him a long look before reaching down and grabbing the boy’s arm. Suzaku opened his mouth to tell her to stop, snapping it shut when she turned his hand over show him the red mark that was tattooed there. She raised her eyebrow at him before letting the boy’s hand drop back down. “Understand now?”

He nodded, taking a step back from the boy. He wasn’t quite as sure about the hierarchy that had been a part of Project Orange, it had been a tangled mess with many different focuses and departments. But he did know that the red mark meant something special, it meant something like C.C.

Suzaku gave the boy a long look, almost expecting him to twitch and stand up like he had seen C.C. do many times over. “Is he going to get up?”

“No.” C.C. rolled the boy over onto his back. She leaned close to him, staring at the boy before shaking her head. “He’s burned himself out.”

“How?”

C.C. stood up abruptly, walking over behind a series of support structures. “He fought something he couldn’t handle.”

Suzaku bit back his next question, stepping over the boy’s body and around the support structure. His breath caught in his throat when he saw Lelouch splayed out there.

He pushed past C.C, crouching down next to Lelouch and shaking him. The motion made Lelouch groan, but the man didn’t wake up. Suzaku pressed his fingers against the pulse point in Lelouch’s neck, sighing when he felt the steady beat there.  He looked up, meeting C.C’s gaze and nodding. “He’s fine.”

“I thought so.” C.C. seemed to by trying to act bored by the situation, but Suzaku heard the waver in her voice.

He smiled to himself and bent over Lelouch, carefully checking him over for any injuries. From what he could feel there weren’t any broken bones. He scooped Lelouch up carefully, just in case there was any other injuries. Then again, he couldn’t imagine Lelouch physically fighting someone who looked ten years old. If anything, he would try to outsmart the boy.

Suzaku grunted as he stood up, adjusting his hold on Lelouch. He turned to look at C.C, tipping his head back towards where the rest of the team. “We’re going to clear out.”

“Go ahead.” She waved one of her hands at him, her attention already on something else in the warehouse. “I’ve got things to do here.”

“Things you want to hide.”

That got a smile out of her. “You know me. Besides, they’re your secrets too.”

Suzaku shook his head. “No, I’m old news.”

“So you think.” She gave him a long look before walking off in the direction of the computer banks that she had found earlier.

Suzaku let her go, there would be no calling her back anyway. C.C. would bring back pertinent information, but there would be just as much information that she would hide away, things she decided that they didn’t need to know. 

He shook his head and looked down at Lelouch. He didn’t expect answers from Lelouch, not even when Lelouch woke up. C.C. managed to avoid telling Lelouch things, or he managed to avoid remembering them. It was probably better if he kept C.C’s meddling a secret, at least for a while. Suzaku would let C.C. handle the fall out for getting rid of anything Lelouch could call valuable information. He had his own problems to worry about.

With Lelouch out cold, Kallen was in charge of the Black Knights, which meant that he had to report back to her just long enough to call the warehouse cleared. After that, he would have to rush back to the villa. Suzaku didn’t think that Lelouch was in any real danger, but he wasn’t going to risk it. If anything, getting Lelouch comfortable would stop him from complaining while he was recovering.

Suzaku gave Lelouch a fond look before striding back to the main part of the warehouse, following the sound of Kallen’s voice to find the rest of the team.


	3. React

It wasn’t too weird to have someone awake and wandering the halls of Aries Villa. The world didn’t keep normal hours so there was no reason for her saviors to either. Lelouch was sure that there were others unable to sleep, but he hadn’t run into any of them yet. He was almost glad of that fact, he didn’t want to meet the rest of the team.

He leaned against the wall, taking a deep breath. With the rest of the team tucked up in their own separate parts of the villa or already in bed, he wouldn’t have to talk to them. Lelouch was more than happy to let them all celebrate a victory. Anything to keep them from talking about what had happened.

Lelouch ran a hand over his face, tipping his head back. He didn’t want to spend his night pacing the upstairs of the villa, but it was better than closing his eyes and seeing it again. He’d had enough of it the first time, like the reminder was something he needed.

They were all soldiers here, people willing to give up their lives. Lelouch wasn’t that much of an optimist to believe that they would all make it to a ripe old age. Dying out in the field was something that could happen to them during any mission. It had almost happened to Gino after all and, with the way that Suzaku barreled into danger, it was a miracle that he had managed to survive so long.

Then again, there was a difference between knowing and seeing. Lelouch had avoided the latter successfully thus far, at least until something had managed to get into his mind.

He reached up to rub at his temples, resisting the urge to take a quick peek at the minds around him. Everyone in the villa knew what him checking up on them felt like. Besides, it wasn’t as easy as strolling through and leaving again, impressions were left behind. Not all of them were well versed in telepathic skills, but they didn’t have to be to interpret the images that Lelouch would leave behind. And, with the way his mind kept drifting back to the vision, there was no question  _what_  he would leave behind.

Lelouch wasn’t sure if they would see the pile of bodies, but he was sure they would see the parts that would concern them the most.

Kallen with her arms burned up to her elbows. Gino with his neck broken. Suzaku bleeding out from a gunshot wound. C.C. stabbed through the heart.

He shuddered, curling the fingers of one hand against the wall. 

The worst part hadn’t been that they were all dead, it had been watching C.C. struggle to pull the metal bar out of her chest until she noticed him. She had smiled at him then, blood trickling out of the corner of her mouth. She had croaked out something to him, and then there had been nothing but silence.

Lelouch shook his head, trying to push the images to the back of his mind. His first clue that it had all been someone manipulating his mind should have been the fact that C.C. had been killed. He had known her for a year now and she had proven impossible to kill. It was part of her power. Still, convincing himself of that was hard, especially when he just didn’t know.

The team had been with each other for a year. They knew how to fight together, but not really too much about each other. For all he knew, C.C. had a weak spot that some villain could take advantage of, or Kallen could really burn herself to death with her plasma blasts. There were small points of weakness that he didn’t know, which he should have. He was the one who coordinated them all and watched over their battles. He was the one making sure that they would all make it out alive.

He pushed away from the wall, stumbling a few steps down the hall before he corrected himself. A quick sweep over the floor told him that everyone was far away, minding their own business. Lelouch felt C.C. perk up at his mental touch, shying away when she reached out for him. He wasn’t going to sit through one of her prying question sessions, not when he already felt shaky. It wouldn’t take too much for her to figure out what was bugging him.

Lelouch glanced over his shoulder, not really expecting C.C. to follow him. She would find another way to drag the information out of him, if she even wanted it.

He shivered and walked down the hall, not wanting to chance her coming out to try and corner him. The only safe place that Lelouch could think of was retreating back to his room. It wouldn’t keep C.C. out come morning, but he would at least get a few hours to himself to figure out what he could say to appease her, if only for the moment.

Lelouch opened the door to his room, coming to a stop when he saw Suzaku curled up on the bed.

He was used to Suzaku wandering the house at odd hours, either working through whatever he had been through what had happened to him when he had been an experimental subject under the Britannian military or coaxing Kallen into a sparring match. It was rare that Suzaku would be in bed until far later in the night. The fight must have taken more out of him than Lelouch had thought.

Suzaku shifted on the bed, Lelouch holding his breath. He hoped that Suzaku would just settle back down.

“Lelouch?”

He huffed when Suzaku lifted his head, watching as the man frowned. “We being called out again?”

“No.” Lelouch walked over to sit on the edge of the bed. He smiled when Suzaku curled around him, his hand resting on Lelouch’s thigh. Lelouch reached down to rest his hand over Suzaku’s. He swallowed at the image of Suzaku’s bleeding body flashing through his mind. 

He shook his head, forcing a smile on his face. “I just couldn’t sleep.”

“Checking up on us?”

“Something like that.” Lelouch looked down, tracing his fingers up Suzaku’s arm.

He had gotten used to having them all around and he couldn’t imagine working with another team. Lelouch couldn’t imagine another group just allowing him to bounce around in their heads without a qualm. They would all start questioning what he was actually doing in there. The rest of the team just trusted him.

He slowed his fingers on Suzaku’s arm, staring at it instead of the man. He could feel the thought spinning around in his mind, glittering and tempting.

Lelouch bit his lip, not bothering to shake off the thought. It would make the whole team hate him, because it would be an abuse of their trust. They allowed him to pass information between them and guide them where they needed to go, but he couldn’t change anything. Once he started, they would never be able to tell what their own thoughts were and what were his.

But once wouldn’t hurt, not when it would be saving their life.

He turned, cupping Suzaku’s cheeks in his hands. He felt Suzaku lean into the touch, waiting for Suzaku to meet his gaze. When he was sure of the eye contact Lelouch pushed his mind against Suzaku’s, focusing on one thought alone. “Live.”

He felt Suzaku jerk before the command settled. Suzaku relaxed slowly, Lelouch watching him as he blinked slowly. 

Suzaku shook his head, pulling away from Lelouch. “Are you coming to bed?”

Lelouch hesitated for a moment, waiting for Suzaku to comment before shaking the thought off. He had felt the command set, so it had to work. 

He smiled at Suzaku, nudging the man. “Roll over.”

Suzaku hummed, rolling over and pressing his face against his pillow. Lelouch was sure that he fell asleep a moment later. He shook his head and slipped into bed beside Suzaku, quick to curl up behind him.

He pulled himself close to Suzaku, pressing his face against the back of Suzaku’s neck. He didn’t dare whisper his prayer, sure that Suzaku would wake up, but he could think it. Lelouch was sure that he was the only one in his head.

That didn’t stop him from thinking the command over and over again. It was the only prayer that he could of that would keep the horrible vision from haunting his dreams.


	4. Fear

Lelouch watched as his team reformed after the battle, probably running through the usual checks. From his far away perch, he could see that Kallen was limping. He reached out for her mind, resting there long enough to see that she had just stepped wrong before pulling away. They would finish up their work on the ground, leaving him to do his usual scan of the area. There had been too many close calls when a second wave had come in while they were regrouping.

He turned in place, reaching out with his mind as he scanned over the area. His kept running across the people of Pendragon, mostly ignoring them as he searched for the strange shifts that indicated something other than human. He couldn’t read the minds of animals, but he could sense them. What they had been fighting felt slightly like a dog, although there were blanks that usually indicated some kind of mechanical element.

Lelouch paced slowly around the top of the roof, working out in every direction. His control on his powers wavered when he got to the edge of the city. He gritted his teeth and pushed himself further. If there weren’t any mechanical creatures, then he had to reach out to whoever was controlling them. Taking down the creatures wouldn’t be enough, not if they didn’t get the person who was controlling them. If they couldn’t do that, then they would be rushing out after the creatures time and time again. After all, there were always other things to worry about, like the twisted caverns that they had found the remains of Project Orange in.

He shivered at the memory, quickly reining is powers back in before he could project to the entire city. They didn’t need to be bombarded with the memory of V.V, the people had suffered enough in their own way. Lelouch didn’t want them muttering about a future with the Black Knights dead along with the rest of the world.

“I see you’re still recovering.”

Lelouch jumped as someone spoke up, spinning around to stare at the person who was standing behind him. He narrowed his eyes when he saw the half mask on the man, his hand dropping down to the gun that he kept on his belt. “You.”

“Ah, so you recognize me. I’m glad.” The man bowed. “I had hoped that we would meet again. It’s an honor to meet one of Marianne’s children.”

Lelouch flinched at the mention of his mother, wanting to shove the man away. With the way that the man talked about his mother, he hadn’t known the truth. He hadn’t known about how Marianne had been a part of Project Orange, he couldn’t have known how she had pushed for the convergence of all worlds to create one, uncomplicated universe. About the lies that had gone on for years while Marianne focused on her work over her children.

He turned away, looking for his team. If he could get them up to him, then they could all fight off the man. They had done it once, they could do it again. All he would have to do was hold the man in place.

Lelouch reached out for the man, his touch almost immediately turned away at the strange blanks in the man’s mind. His power skittered over the mechanical parts before Lelouch withdrew. He gasped for breath, staring at the man. “What are you?”

“Something like you, I think. Someone who’s just trying to help the world a little.” Something about the last phrase didn’t feel right, Lelouch feeling a twist in the biological parts of the man’s mind. He tried to push at them, but the man easily pushed him out again. “I’ve come to offer you a deal.”

“A deal?”

The man didn’t seem to notice that Lelouch was repeating everything that he said. He simply reached into his jacket and pulled out an envelope. The man held it up before tossing it to the ground between them. “A formal invitation from the Knight of One. Sir Waldstein has been paying close attention to your group, and he finds himself impressed. There are also slots open for your team within the Rounds, if they wish to join.”

“Why?”

“Because you want to protect the people, which is what Camelot was created for. We also find ourselves lacking a director.”

Lelouch snorted and turned to look back at his team. It was no wonder that Camelot was looking for another director, the last one had been in charge of Project Orange and had disappeared into the strange world they had been trying to merge with their own. The very idea of Camelot turning to the person who was behind the death of their last director made him want to laugh.

He must have made a sound because the man cleared his throat. Lelouch turned his head, staring at the envelope that the man was holding out to him. “I think that they’re making the right decision. You could move things forward.”

“I have other things to do.”

“Ah.” The man nodded. “You’re worried about your team. I’ll leave you to it then, but just think on it.”

The man pressed the envelope into Lelouch’s hands before turning and walking away.

Lelouch turned to watch him go, waiting until the man had walked back down into the building before looking at the envelope. He was tempted to open it, just to see what kind of things were being offered to them. It might be humorous, especially because some of the Rounds working in Camelot didn’t like having competition. Then again, it might be better to have Kallen just disintegrate the thing before they did anything. He wasn’t interested in breaking up the Black Knights, especially when they were doing so well.

He turned the envelope over his hands, his gaze drifting back down towards his team. They were still working through their quick sweep, Lelouch frowning when he realized that Kallen was still limping. He should call her back to save her foot. She shouldn’t push herself, not when it could cost her in the next fight.

Lelouch froze at the thought, the envelope fluttering down to land on the roof. What he had seen with V.V. still lurked in his head, no matter how many times he tried to lock it away. He didn’t want to remember any of it, but it kept surfacing in his dreams and when he let his mind wander too far back.

_Kallen with her arms burned up to her elbows. Gino with his neck broken. Suzaku bleeding out from a gunshot wound. C.C. stabbed through the heart._

He started back from the roof, panting for breath as he stared down at the envelope. He pressed a hand to his mouth, focusing on keeping his breathing steady.

Whatever V.V. had showed him was fake, a manipulation of his fears like C.C. could do. There was no reason to believe that it would ever come true, except that things were starting to move in that direction. They were fighting more often, struggling to win more often. Lelouch couldn’t remember any of them having more injuries save for when they had just started out. With more difficult enemies, it was only a matter of time until what V.V. showed him was true. It didn’t matter if it happened the same way or not, the end was the same. The whole team would die and he would be safe, because he was always too far away to really help.

He swallowed and picked up the envelope, his fingers hovering over the seal before he curled him into his palm. He didn’t want to open it, not until he and the rest of the team were back at Aries Villa.

Lelouch would give them all the option to choose whether to join Camelot or not, he had to do that or he was sure that all of them would walk out on him. As long as he presented it as a step forward, he was sure that his whole team would go with him. Joining with Camelot would mean that they would have the backup that they desperately needed at times and they wouldn’t have to deal with the barrage of bad publicity that would come with every fight. Lelouch was sure that he could sell it,

He had to sell it, for their sake and his own. Maybe if he got his team merged with Camelot he would finally be able to forget the future that V.V. had shown him. A future where the six of them weren’t on their own might mean that they all wouldn’t end up dead and Lelouch could make up for whatever mistake had led to that future.


	5. Ice Cream

Kallen tugged at the uniform that they had gotten her, turning around and hissing at her reflection in the mirror. She had known that the Knights of the Round had a specialized uniform, but she had never expected what she had been given. The cape was good for show, she would admit that, and the boots and pants were comfortable. It was everything else that was the problem.

She turned around to look at the tighter suit that she had put off trying on. Kallen couldn’t think of a reason for her to wear the damn thing, no matter how many different names they slapped on it. As far as she was concerned, the only stealth suit that she needed was a pair of civilian clothes and maybe a wig. She would stand out horribly in the skin tight suit, especially with all of the ornamentation that had been put on. Apparently, she was expected to be stealthy while announcing to the world that she was one of the Rounds.

Kallen looked up at the mirror and stuck her tongue out at her reflection, her disgust not going away when she got another look at herself. She tugged on the front of her shirt and jacket again, trying to get it to sit the way she wanted to. It wouldn’t work, and she knew it, but that didn’t stop her from trying.

After another few tugs, she gave up. Kallen stripped out of her jacket and shirt, throwing them back onto her desk. She crossed her arms over her chest, drumming her fingers against her arm. Kallen didn’t think that there was a way that she could get the uniform changed, even with Lelouch being the director, which meant that she would just have to deal. But she would do it her own way.

She rummaged through the mess that was her office, pushing through the various uniforms she had been given in search of her shirt. Kallen frowned when she saw a flash of yellow, bending over to snatch it up.

Kallen froze when she heard a wolf whistle, turning around to glare at the person who had made the noise. Her anger abated slightly when she saw Gino standing in front of the mirror in his own uniform, admiring his own reflection. He caught her gaze in the mirror, giving her a grin before turning and whistling again. “Not bad. Not bad at all.”

She snorted and snatched up her shirt, tugging it up over her head. “Looks like you got a good one.”

“Finally.” She looked over at Gino as she tugged her shirt down into place, watching as he continued to preen. “It took them ages to find one that fit me.”

Kallen gave him a look over, watching as Gino brushed down the front of his coat. She took in the fit of his uniform, the corner of her mouth twitching up. At least his made sense. She couldn’t imagine standing in official meetings with a coat that looked too small and a shirt that showed her stomach. The Rounds were supposed to be professionals, not eye candy.

She reached up to adjust her hair, pushing her headband back into place. “Do they have any spares?”

“Sure.” Gino nodded at his reflection, turning around to stare at her. “Why?”

Kallen tossed her coat and shirt over to Gino. “Mine seems to have shrunk.”

He held up the uniform and laughed. Gino turned around, holding up her uniform to himself before throwing it back on the bed. “I think you’re the victim of a prank.”

“I don’t care.” Kallen gave the uniform on her bed a glare before shivering. “Show me the spares, because I am not wearing that.”

“This is how tradition dies.” Gino shook his head with a smile, the expression not wavering even when Kallen turned her glare on him. He unbuttoned his white jacket, throwing it almost carelessly over his arm. “Come on, the spares are in the basement.”

Kallen followed him out into the hall, wanting to laugh at the way that some of the agents scuttled out of Gino’s way. He wasn’t one of the frightening Rounds, but the uniform was enough to send them all out of the way. Kallen wasn’t sure if she wanted to be proud about how far they had gotten or scoff at it all. The Rounds weren’t supposed to be imposing figures, they were supposed to be doing what the Black Knights had been for years, protecting the people from what Britannia couldn’t deal with. Or what they wouldn’t.

She watched another pair of agents rush past, neither of them looking at her or Gino. Kallen sighed and walked faster, tucking herself between Gino and the wall. She gave the people rushing through the halls a long look before shaking her head. She grunted when Gino elbowed her in the side.

“Come on, Kallen.”

She didn’t bother to turn her head to see the smile that he was sure to be giving her. She didn’t want to cheer up, what she wanted to do was to find Lelouch and figure out what he was doing. She didn’t mind being a Round, it was becoming like the rest of them that she minded.

Gino bumped into her again, this time more gently. Kallen glared at the floor before daring to glance up. This time, he was giving her a somewhat more serious look. “Hey, it’s not that bad. It’s just the first day. And,” he held up a finger when she opened her mouth to speak, “they’re serving up a special in the mess in our honor.”

Kallen raised an eyebrow. A lunch special wasn’t enough to get her over her ire, but she recognized what Gino was doing. Trying to get her to settle in was almost worth the effort, but she wasn’t having any of it. Her day had gone bad when they had handed her the pile of uniforms. Neither bribes nor cheery smiles from Gino could make her mood shift. The only thing that might save the day would be a report that they were needed out in the field.

There was nothing like a good fight to lift her mood.


	6. Repositioned

Lelouch was getting used to hallway briefings. Aside from the few briefings he could attend when his agents got back from where they were scattered around the world, they were the only ones he had time for as he ran back and forth over the Avalon. And, since he couldn’t just pick the information out of the minds of his staff, it was easier to just listen to them while on the move.

“Sir Bismarck’s team just reported in from the situation in the EU. According to him everything is well, save for the trouble that Sir Bradley got into with the Knights of St. Michael over there.”

“I’ll speak with him about that later. Tell him to return as soon as the situation is finished.”

“Yes sir. Then there’s Sir Kozuki’s team. They didn’t report in as soon as they landed, but the situation has escalated since we sent them out.”

“Keep an eye on the situation and keep me informed. Anything else?”

Agent Fenette shuffled through her papers, opening her mouth to deliver him the rest of the news when Lelouch felt something tug at his mind.

He froze in the hallway, turning his head back towards the docking bays of the Avalon. 

He was always on the alert for certain people coming back. The rest of his original team was either out beyond his range or working on the Avalon. The only one that had been deployed in the area was Suzaku.

Lelouch turned and started walking back towards the docking bays just as the announcement came over their communication units.

“Team Kururugi is landing in Bay 2. Ground crew, prepare for inspection. Clear briefing room 3. I repeat-”

Lelouch growled as he pulled the device out of his ear. He might regret it, but any of the agents could reach him if they tried to grab his attention hard enough. Dealing with telepaths was something that any agent of Camelot had to learn how to do in any case. Besides, all of the agents knew their director by now. There was no point holding his attention when Suzaku came back.

He was already reaching for Suzaku before he was halfway to the docking bay, checking for injury or anything that would indicate that a mission had gone wrong.

Lelouch could feel a few injuries, all of them minor and all of them already on the mend. He never worried that Suzaku wouldn’t come back, he could still feel the command lingering in the corner of Suzkau’s mind, his own voice echoing back to him.

He came to a stop right outside of the doors, feeling his breath catch in his throat when he saw the team stumble out.

They all looked exhausted, not that Lelouch had thought that they would be otherwise. He couldn’t help but wish that he could have gone out there with them. He wouldn’t have fought, he had never fought with the original Black Knights. But just being there would have made him feel more in control, far better than being stuck in the Avalon miles away.

Suzaku met his gaze as he limped out with the others, Lelouch glancing down at the rip in the suit that ran down the outside of his leg. The edges of the suit were crusted with blood, but it wasn’t an open wound anymore. It must have been freshly healed because it still hurt him.

He jerked his gaze back up as Suzaku ambled over to him. Lelouch relaxed as Suzaku slipped an arm around his waist, pulling him close. Lelouch leaned into Suzaku’s shoulder, relieved that he didn’t wince. The last time Suzaku had come back from a mission, he had managed to hide a dislocated shoulder for five hours. He had only acknowledged it when Lelouch had leaned on it.

Lelouch heard Suzaku huff, feeling the puff of warm air against the side of his head and a vague feeling of amusement coast through his mind. “I’m fine.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“You’ll have to wait to check. I have a debriefing, and you probably left someone standing in the hall thinking that something was wrong.”

Lelouch winced, shooting a glare at Suzaku as the man laughed. Even the promising drag of Suzaku’s fingers across the small of his back and hip didn’t soothe him completely. The fact that Suzaku was right didn’t help things at all. Business had to go on as usual, they weren’t a small group operating on their own anymore. They were so much more now.

He looked up, watching as Suzaku walked away with the rest of his team, Suzaku’s limp slowly disappearing the longer he walked. Compared to him, the rest of his team looked like kids.

Lelouch sighed and looked down at the communication unit in his hand, carefully fitting it back into place. He listened to the chatter, both over the line and the surface thoughts that he couldn’t block from his head. Lelouch rocked back on his heels, tempted to rush after Suzaku and sit in on the briefing. Anything to grab what it had felt like when they had just been a small team.

Instead, he turned on his heel and headed back to where he had left Agent Fenette. There was too much to do to take time for himself, not when there were teams to dispatch and threats to assess. There was no point in wishing for the past, there was no way for him to get it back.


	7. Trapped

Euphemia waited for the door to shut, bracing herself for the darkness that would follow. Even though she knew it would come, she was always startled by how black it could be. She slammed her palm against the brick wall, ignoring the pain. At least there was something solid to hold onto, a reminder that she wasn’t just going to step off into nowhere as soon as she moved.

She swallowed and began inching her way along the wall, dragging her fingers in the mortar between the bricks. The rough surface caught at the scabs that had formed on the pads of her fingers, but Euphemia ignored them in favor of searching. If any of her captors looked for her, they would just see small streaks of blood across the bricks and probably think that she was trying to move around the dark space. They had taunted her with the fact that she wouldn’t be escaping enough times that Euphemia bet that they didn’t think she would try. After all, none of the others had escaped, all of their governments had bowed to the demands and given in.

Charles wouldn’t give in, it would go against everything that he believed as emperor of Britannia. He wouldn’t let anyone move on it either, not even Cornelia. The most he would do was send out the Knights of the Round, but the last Euphemia had heard, they were busy. Perhaps too busy for a rich girl who had spent most of her life making trouble for the empire.

She bit her lip, pausing her slow check of the wall. She knew what she had been taken for, apparently she had rocked the boat too much talking about equal rights for Numbers and how to make Britannia truly great again. Whoever had taken her just wanted to spook any of her supporters back into silence. None of them had acted on their threats of torture or to start sending pieces of her back, which meant that someone was complying.

Euphemia wasn’t sure how she felt about that. She didn’t want to compromise everything that she had worked for, there were other people that would pick up the torch where she had left off. But there was some part of her that didn’t want to die for her cause, she at least wanted to see something that she had done come to fruition.

She sighed and pressed her fingers back against the wall, tapping against the bricks as she searched for the one that she had been working on. She might have been held there against her will and threatened, but so far nothing had happened. On the rare occasions that she was let out, it was to a small yard to have a few moments to walk around before she was led back into the darkness. The long spans of time that she spent inside the dark room were put to good use.

If Charles wasn’t going to allow her to be rescued, then she was going to get herself out of there before one of her captors had decided that they had been too nice for too long.

One of the bricks moved under her probing, Euphemia quick to catch it before it tumbled to the floor. She threw a glance over at where she assumed the door was. She didn’t know if her captors had bothered to put a guard on her, but she didn’t want to find out. Euphemia licked her lips before setting the brick on the floor, starting to carefully pick out the others that surrounded it.

She didn’t know how long she would have to work, but there was always enough warning. They would knock on the door and demand that she step forward. It had been enough time to hide what she was doing so far, but she wasn’t about to let her guard down.

Euphemia reached down into the tunnel, groping around for the spoon that she had left in the tunnel. She winced when her knuckles knocked against the sharp rock that she stored in the tunnel with the rest of her supplies. She knocked it aside with her foot before wading into the tunnel.

She kept one hand on the wall as she moved into her tunnel, her other hand in front of her. The last count was twenty-seven steps to the end of the tunnel, but Euphemia wasn’t quite sure. The count back was always rushed. She adjusted her fingers around the spoon, sighing when her hand touched the back of the tunnel.

The dirt gave easily under her fingers, Euphemia closing her eyes as she tried to bring up the mental map of the compound that she had complied on the few trips outside. It wasn’t a perfect map, but it was better than just digging blind. As it was, she was getting close to the garden, and then it would be forty-five steps to get to the garden wall, fifty-five if she wanted to be safe.

Euphemia took a deep breath and braced herself against the wall. It was a looming task, but it wouldn’t get done if she just stood there. Euphemia dug the spoon into the dirt, using her other hand to claw more of it out of the way. It would have been easier if she had a second spoon, but she didn’t think that her captors would fall for the excuse that she must have kicked it out the door when she had been called out. Until she could find something better, she would use her hand, anything to get herself out.

There might be a rescue team coming for her, and Euphemia was more than willing to let them save her. All she knew was that they’d better get to her before she managed to dig underneath the garden and its wall. If they got to her after she had gotten out, then she didn’t know what she would do. The only thing she would know was that the emperor had managed to convince everyone to wait too long.

She gritted her teeth and dug faster. If she was rescued, then there would be concessions, ones that she didn’t wouldn’t want to bend to. It was just like the emperor to do something like that to win over his opposition.

The spoon dropped out of her fingers, Euphemia staring at the dirt in front of her in shock. It  _was_  just like Charles, a perfect way to eliminate the competition without killing them. Frightening anyone who stood against him was less obvious than just killing them. She should have realized the pattern sooner, back when the disappearances and demands had started. But she hadn’t, and she had fallen for the trap.

She dug her fingers into the dirt, feeling some of it trickle over her hand. The conclusions she was drawing didn’t look good for her, especially for her rescue. The Knights of the Round had always been sent out to recover the kidnapped people before, but they often worked directly under the emperor. Even with the new director of Camelot, Euphemia had heard about the Rounds working on what the emperor wanted over their missions, although why that hadn’t gotten to the director confused her. If she ever got out she was storming right over to Camelot headquarters and demanding to know why their director was still letting this happen.

But, to do that, she would need to get herself out of her prison, hopefully before the Rounds came. Euphemia sighed and groped around for her spoon, getting back to the hard work of digging.


	8. Revelation

“You bastard!” 

Lelouch stumbled backward from the blow, feeling the edges of Suzaku’s knuckles brush his face. He reeled a bit, hoping that he would get far away enough from Suzaku to talk.

But Suzaku wouldn’t let him. He stalked after him, reaching for Lelouch. Lelouch slipped to the side, his heart pounding quickly. 

His first instinct was to reach out for Suzaku’s mind and rip at it until he couldn’t move any more. Lelouch didn’t know what Suzaku’s healing factor would do to his powers, but it was the only thing he could do. There was a gun on the other side of the room, but Lelouch didn’t think that he would be fast enough to reach it.

Lelouch swallowed and held out his hands, hoping that it would keep Suzaku back for just a few more minutes. “I can explain. But right now we need to focus on the problem.”

“I am.”

Lelouch ducked under the swing, gasping as he knocked into his desk. He pressed a hand to his aching ribs, looking up at Suzaku.

He had always known that Suzaku wasn’t quite human, he had read enough files for that. He had seen what Suzaku could do on the battlefield, his reflexes faster than any human that Lelouch had ever seen. Lelouch had always admired that, enjoyed watching Suzaku in his element.

Now he was terrified. He was facing off against a monster and he was defenseless.

Lelouch moved around the desk, careful to put it between himself and Suzaku. “Listen to me. This isn’t going to help us, and it’s not going to help Euphy.”

“Of course not. You used her! You got inside of her head and twisted her to use her!”

“I-”

“Who else have you done that to? Is that why Camlot accepted us?”

Lelouch opened and shut his mouth, but his famous lies wouldn’t come to him; not in the face of Suzaku’s rage and anguish.

His silence seemed to be all the answer that Suzaku needed. 

His friend growled and reached for the desk, Lelouch hearing it creak with the force of Suzaku’s anger. 

“So that’s how it went. I wondered, but I didn’t want to…” Suzaku shook his head, looking up at Lelouch. “You promised us that we would be helping people. That’s what the Black Knights did and I thought that what’s we were doing here in Camelot.”

“We are! We can still save lives if you will just-”

“No. For once, you’re going to be quiet and just listen to me.” He slammed his hand against the desk, Lelouch glancing down at the crack that formed. He glanced back up at Suzaku as his friend leaned forward. “I did  _not_  join the Black Knights to play at being at hero and I did  _not_  come to this place to help them torture and imprison innocent people.”

“I didn’t know.”

“How could you not?! You can get into anyone’s mind. How could you not know about any of this?”

“Because it’s not anywhere. No one knows about it!”

“Someone has to. Someone has to be behind it.”

“And I don’t know who it is!”

“Shut up!” Lelouch flinched back, pressing himself against the wall as Suzaku circled around the desk. “This whole damn place is rotten and you expect me to believe that you couldn’t see it? For all I know, you arranged it all. This was your plan from the start, to get all of this power and start attacking the people who hurt you. I know you’re angry about your mother working with Project Orange, Lelouch, but what did Euphy have to do with this?”

“Nothing!”

“Then why is she missing?”

“I don’t know, but there’s still a chance that we can save her.” He gave Suzaku what he hoped was a pleading look, but it was hard to tell when his mind was occupied. He was combing through the minds of everyone on the Avalon, stopping just short of tearing through them to find what he was looking for.

If Euphemia’s case was anything like the others who had been stolen away and tortured until they broke, they didn’t have much time before they started taking limbs away. 

He felt his mind catch on something, a stray thought that danced through his mind before he realized what it was. He had to backtrack, searching through the muddle of minds.

Lelouch felt it again, barely having the time to figure out who it was before Suzaku was coming around the desk to grab onto his neck.

He gasped for breath as his attention was yanked back to the room. Lelouch reached up to claw at Suzaku’s fingers, trying to jerk away as they tightened around his neck.

Suzaku didn’t seem to notice, leaning close. “We’re going to save her. You’re going to take me to her and then I’m going to tear this whole place apart. I don’t care about your revenge or about your grand plans. I’m here to make sure people like you don’t hurt the rest of them. I don’t care what it takes, Lelouch, you hear me. I’m going to fix this damn mess you made.”

His fingers squeezed more firmly around Lelouch’s throat, Lelouch sure that the bone and muscle in his throat would give way at any moment. Then Suzaku let him go. 

Lelouch coughed, stumbling backwards until he caught himself on something. He gasped for breath in between coughs, rubbing at his throat with one hand while the other scrambled for purchase on the place he had caught himself against.

He looked up at Suzaku, freezing when he saw the man tense. Lelouch spread his fingers over his bruised throat, watching Suzaku settle into something like a battle stance. He shook his head, wishing that he could speak to tell Suzaku that he wasn’t part of all of this, but there was someone on the Avalon that was. If the two of them could just work together they could solve this like they had when they were just a part of the Black Knights. 

He felt his mind brush across Suzaku’s a moment to late to stop it, an impulse born out of familiarity and panic. Lelouch’s eyes widened, watching as Suzaku stepped forward. Unable to speak, he shook his head, just watching as Suzaku rushed towards him.

Lelouch fumbled for something on the piece of furniture that he was leaning on, anything to stop Suzaku from coming to finish the job. He felt his fingers close around something, Lelouch turning and holding it out between him and Suzaku.

He felt his fingers fall into the familiar pattern of holding a gun, Lelouch staring at his own hand in horror as it curled around the familiar weapon. For the first time, he felt like someone that he had taken control of. Everything was moving without his permission.

He shook his head, looking up at Suzaku before forcibly pushing himself away from the furniture that he was holding himself up against.

His knees went weak, Lelouch standing upright for a moment before he sunk to his knees. He didn’t dare move his gaze from Suzaku, not even when he felt his fingers move so they pulled the trigger.

The roar of the gun was loud in the small room, Lelouch flinching away from it.

In that moment, he took his gaze away from Suzaku, trying to track the course of the bullet only to freeze when he saw a bloom of red appear on Suzaku’s chest.

Suzaku stumbled a few steps forward before crumpling to his knees. Lelouch barely had time to comprehend what he was seeing before he heard two more shots go off, both of them knocking Suzaku back. 

He dropped his gun, scrambling over to where Suzaku was lying on the floor, blood leaking through his uniform.

Lelouch pressed his hand against the wound, his breath wheezing out of his throat when the blood wouldn’t stop. He shook his head, trying to force words past his aching throat.

He leaned forward to stare at Suzaku, trying to catch something that would mean that Suzaku was still alive. He could heal faster than any normal human can, and there was still the order that Lelouch had given to him long ago.

He could hear it now, ringing out as a shout in Suzaku’s mind. But it wasn’t enough.

Lelouch gritted his teeth and pushed in further, trying to boost the command or nudge Suzaku’s mind. There had to be something to get him moving again, something to get him healing.

He felt something like Suzaku rallying back, and then there was nothing.

Lelouch didn’t realize that he was screaming until he tasted blood in the back of his mouth. He choked on it, leaning forward and coughing.

He felt hands grab his arms, Lelouch hunching over Suzaku protectively with a snarl. That didn’t deter the people who were lifting them away, Lelouch barely recognizing them. He didn’t care who they were, if they were so close then they must have been there, so it was their fault that he could still feel Suzaku dying in his head.

He reached out to lash out, to rip their minds to shreds until there was nothing left of them, until they were left with nothing but screaming. He pressed into their minds, coming to an abrupt stop when he felt the same stray thought that had given him pause before.

It took more effort than he expected to lift himself away from the twisted track of dying thoughts that he had felt while in Suzaku’s mind, but the nagging was too important for him to sink back into the swirl. He turned his head, staring at the man who was standing in the door, smirking.

Lelouch felt his breath catch, a shiver going down his spine as Luciano Bradley smirked and waved at him, the secret rot at the heart of Camelot a steady pulse in his mind.


	9. Ripples

C.C. didn’t use the full expanse of her power often, it was too large, too daunting to face it all at once. More importantly, it brought up bad memories. There were still some spells that she couldn’t use without feeling the scar on her chest burn. The wound had long since healed, but C.C. could sometimes feel the knife slicing through her body as her mentor had tried to force her into a decision. It was one she wasn’t sure if she regretted.

She traced over the shape of the scar under her shirt, using the motion to calm her mind. She needed the calm with everything that was going on. With Lelouch out of commission and Nunnally keeping watch over him, there was no one left but her, Kallen and Gino to take care of the mess that had been left behind. What they all needed was a stroke of genius, but C.C’s mind didn’t twist in the same way that Lelouch’s did. After years of living, she had figured out that the best way of getting through anything was the straightforward method. But this was politics and things too convoluted for C.C. to just blaze through. Doing that might just get the rest of them killed, something that C.C. didn’t want to go through again. She’d had enough the last time someone had discovered that she was unable to die.

C.C. breathed out slowly, resting her hands on her lap. She needed to focus on the point of her exercise, the slow reach of her power into the world that ran parallel to theirs. She had called it C’s World when she was younger, playing off a name that she had discarded centuries ago. With no one else alive to reach into it, C’s World was a fitting name.

She felt the first tug of the connection, C.C. resisting until the flow of energy was stable. She wasn’t going to go rushing in, not when there was something complicated to accomplish. She took a deep breath, letting the energy that she had gathered flow out and beyond as she reached.

Seeing the future was beyond her, but there were other little ways to figure out what needed to be done. There were other worlds, ones that bumped against and around C’s World, ones that would have gone through the same series of events. It was just a matter of finding them.

C.C. laid back, settling herself carefully on the bed as the worlds spun by. She reached out to touch them as she became aware of them, getting snippets before moving on.

_A black chess piece, a king, wobbled back and forth, always teetering on the edge and yet never falling._

_A knight in black approached his emperor, greeting a smile with a sword through his stomach as had been planned._

_A man, a leader with a sword and the tangle of a dark past mixed with family. It was Lelouch. Then it was Suzaku. The worlds were similar but far separate._

_A prince and his lover, a wolf and a hawk, forever separate._

_Leloucia is dipped by Suzaku as they kiss as crowd of well-wishers in wedding garb cheered._

C.C. shook her head, trying to focus on what she wanted. She didn’t want all possible futures from where she was coming from. She wanted a world close enough to hers.

She bent her will to the task, pushing aside more worlds as she continued her search. Every once and while one that was close enough to what she was looking for would pop up, but the results were never what she wanted.

_Lelouch firing the shots into Suzaku._

_Suzaku killing Lelouch before the argument could start._

_Luciano gunning down Suzaku before turning on Lelouch, taking care of the two of them._

C.C. huffed, carefully extracting herself from the tangled web of energy. She ignored the way they reached for her again. It was bad to give into them, she had seen what had happened to V.V, and it was not an end that she wanted for herself.

She pressed her hand against her scar, using the warm feeling of it under her fingers to guide her back home. It didn’t matter that it was all in her mind, just as long as it worked.

C.C. laid still for a moment, focusing on her breathing and drawing the power back into herself. Some fragments of C’s World tried to hang onto her, C.C. shaking them off and sending them back. With the way things were going, they wouldn’t be left alone for long.

She rubbed at her eyes, blinking them quickly to adjust to the bright light in her room. C.C. was tempted to storm over and pull down the curtains, but she knew better than to try and move. She would only get a few steps before she fell on her face. It was better to just stay in her bed until she was sure that she wouldn’t embarrass herself. In the interim there was no better time to go over what she had seen.

It was simple to work out, because there had been nothing but destruction and Charles winning. C.C. only wished that was enough to get Lelouch out of his sulk, but that wouldn’t shock him out of it for long. It was old news that Charles was winning, what they needed was something encouraging, a victory of their own. Hopefully Kallen could bring more people into their small group; that was victory enough. If not, then she would have to go with Plan B.

Plan B wasn’t fully formed, but it was one that was quickly growing in her mind. After all, there was one connection in all the other worlds that almost matched theirs. They all missed either Lelouch or Suzaku, which meant that she had to even the playing field again.

C.C. swung her legs over the edge of the bed, standing up slowly. When she didn’t wobble, she nodded to herself and started across the small apartment.

Kallen might still succeed in her task, but C.C. had lived too long to just trust one plan at a time. It was better to get started on her plan, especially when it would take so long.

She glanced at the clock, mentally calculating the time she had to work with. There were four more hours of daylight, plenty of time to gather up the supplies that she needed. Then, as soon as night fell, it would be time to rob a grave.


	10. Light

Gino watched the swirl of red around Kallen’s hands, her fingers twitching as the energy twirled around them. He swallowed and looked away, looking over the area. They were supposed to be making their way to the safe house in Area 11, but it was proving harder than either of them had thought.

From the last news he had heard, the Rounds were scattered through Area 18 and the fledgling colony of Euro-Britannia, trying to put down uprisings there. Gino quashed the short burst of joy he got from the idea. The uprising in Area 18 wasn’t really their doing, just they just passed through and put in a few encouraging words. The rebellion was entirely theirs, leaving him and Kallen to keep running and trying to find people that would help them. But they wouldn’t be able to uphold their end of the plan if they couldn’t move.

Gino uncurled one hand, pressing his palm flat against the building. He felt his arm tingle, but he resisted the urge to just absorb the concrete. He felt unprepared without something queued up to fight with, but it would give them away. Kallen was being careful with her powers, using it only a small amount as a light. It cast the area they were standing in a flickering red light, but at least it was something to see by.

He heard her suck in a quick breath just before she cut out the energy. Gino blinked rapidly as his eyes adjusted to the dark, keeping as still as he could as he heard someone walk by.

It was too dark to see what color their cape was, but he could see the gold shine in what light there was. Gino narrowed his eyes, reaching back to grab a hold of Kallen’s shoulder. The Round didn’t look like she had spotted them, but Gino couldn’t quite squash the urge to push them further back into the darkness. If she didn’t seem them now, the motion was sure to catch her attention.

The Round walked by, Gino letting out the breath that he had been holding. He let his hand slid off of Kallen’s shoulder, listening as she started to move away. He didn’t dare move for a moment more, just waiting for the Round to come back. They had been lucky so far, but he doubted that their luck would hold out for much longer.

“Gino.” He jumped at the sound of his name, turning around just as she activated her powers again. He hissed and covered his eyes, only lowering his arm when Kallen dimmed the flow of energy. “Sorry.”

“No problem. We moving?”

She nodded, adjusting the bag over her shoulder. “It’s just a few more blocks.”

Kallen didn’t give him a time estimate, not that Gino thought that it would be accurate. 

If there was a Round patrolling, then there were bound to be others. The ground forces in the Area were bound to be attached to the Round until the two of them were found. Gino gave the street a quick glance before pressing his palm more firmly against the building.

He let the concrete flow over his arm, Gino cycling it over his shoulders and down onto his other arm, letting it form a band around his wrist. It would be easier to carry that way, available no matter what happened. He rubbed his thumb over the band, using the rough surface of the concrete to calm him. Kallen was constantly armed with her power, and now he had armed himself. They both had guns, extra insurance for anyone they came up against.

Gino rolled his shoulders, felling the tension in the movement. It was only because they had gone on for so long without something happening. The Round patrolling was the closest thing that they’d had to an incident, but he was still on edge. He bet that Kallen was thinking the same thing. She was nervously running her fingers through the ball of energy that she had conjured up, the motion reminding Gino of someone petting a cat.

“Kallen?”

She shook her head, snapping out of whatever she was thinking. Kallen gave him a quick look before nodding towards the end of the alley. “We could go that way. It’s not much of a short cut, but it’s safer.”

“I’ll take safer.” Gino gestured for her to take the lead, amused by the little curtsey that she gave him before moving on. Gino kept pace with her, his fingers wrapped firmly around his other wrist. The rough texture of the concrete kept him steady, as the moved through the streets tinted red by the flickering ball of energy in Kallen’s hands.


	11. Quixotic

Kallen crossed her arms over her chest, glaring at her brother’s friends. She could feel Gino looming over her shoulder, probably doing the same, but the threat didn’t carry the same weight. None of these people knew Gino, but they all knew her. They could all trust her, which made the fact that they were hesitating even more annoying.

She felt a frisson of warmth shoot up her spine, Kallen quick to repress the urge to let the little bit of energy out. That was something she would have done years ago, when she was still stumbling around and trying to control her powers. The only thing that would be putting her on edge was the stress, but Kallen thought that she was entitled to it. Being on the run from Camelot and everything that they could pull wasn’t a relaxing activity. Kallen wasn’t even sure going out to the Areas would help them, but there was no else for them to go. They were running out of places to hide.

She felt Gino’s hand smooth up her back, Kallen gritting her teeth and shoving it off. She didn’t need to be calmed down, what she needed was answers. Kallen had been telling what remained of the Black Knights that her friends from Area 11 would help them no matter what, and they were letting her down.

Kallen took a step forward, resting her hands on her hips. “Ohgi…”

Ohgi didn’t look at her, still staring at the table. When Kallen looked at the others, none of them could meet her gaze. She grumbled under her breath before slamming her hand down on the table. “Come on! You guys can’t seriously be considering doing nothing?!”

“What else can we do?” She rounded on Tamaki, ready to give her a peace of her mind when Ohgi looked up.

Kallen gave Naoto’s old friend a pleading look, hoping that he would at least agree with her. The expression on his face was hard to read, Kallen leaning closer in the hopes that it would encourage him to speak.

Instead Ohgi stood up, his chair scratching across the floor. “Kallen, we can’t.”

“Why not?”

“Because it’s Britannia!” She hadn’t expected the outburst, and neither had the others by their reaction. The rest of the group leaned back from the table, but Ohgi didn’t seem to be deterred. “You can’t fight Britannia, not with only ten people.”

“You could at least try.”

“And get us all killed?” Ohgi shook his head and looked down. “It’s not a good situation, I understand that, but we’re not going to put ourselves at risk, not with the Knights of the Round.”

“We can protect you.”

“Because you two were Knights of the Round? That means nothing now. I’m sorry, Kallen, but you’re going to need more to sway us.”

She opened her mouth to demand what else, but she quickly snapped it shut. Kallen looked at the group in front of her, her shoulders slumping forward.

They all wanted a plan, something to prove that they could actually win. Camelot had done their job well, they had terrorized the people without ever having to start a war. All it had taken were a few well-chosen officials beaten up and frightened to make the message clear. No one would stand for the people and, if anyone stood up, the same would happen to them. There had been enough examples that Kallen doubted that anyone would stand up without something brilliant, except that they didn’t have their brilliance. Kallen hadn’t seen Lelouch since Suzaku had died. She and Gino had long gone from Britannia by then, trying to find out where the Rounds had taken Euphemia.

She licked her lips, looking between Ohgi and the rest of the group before she took a step back. The retreat burned, but Kallen really couldn’t think of anything else to do. She and Gino were outnumbered and dependent on the good will of the others. They’d already had too many close calls while crossing through the Britannian Areas. Kallen didn’t want to think about what would happen to the two of them if Camelot and the other Rounds caught up with them.

Kallen curled her hands into fists, giving them all an even look. “So you’re just going to sit here and let them walk all over you?”

Tamaki puffed out his chest. “Of course not.”

“Then when are you going to act?”

Tamaki didn’t have an answer and neither did Ohgi but the way he refused to meet her gaze. Ohgi just shook his head. “I’m sorry, Kallen.”

She felt Gino rest a hand on her shoulder, like he expected her to lash out at all of them. Kallen huffed, rolling her shoulder to throw Gino’s hand off of it. She didn’t need his comfort, not when it wasn’t really anger she was feeling. It was something more like disappointment because the people she had counted on, the people that had promised to help her carry out her brother’s dream were all cowards.

Kallen jerked her head towards the door, Gino following the order without a question. If they couldn’t get help here, then they would move on. There were some other old friends that she wanted to try her luck with before the two of them had to make a run for another safe house. After that she wasn’t sure what they would do, but there had to be others that were willing to help them. None everyone in the Areas could have been cowed so easily by what Camelot had been doing, it was just a matter of finding them.


	12. Spell

C.C. circled the sheet wrapped body, tugging the scarf she had tied around her face tighter.

From what little she could remember about the spell, it was better on fresher bodies, but she hadn’t had much of a choice. If she’d had her way, then she would have just let Suzaku rest. From everything she had read, he’d struggled down a long road to get where he was. From what she had seen, he would have a harder road from now on. It was enough to wish anyone a long and peaceful rest, but they didn’t have the time for that.

She rolled her shoulders as she settled down on the floor, carefully crossing her legs so she wouldn’t smear any of the chalk marks she had made. C.C. reached forward to tug the top of the sheet away from Suzaku’s face. She didn’t want to go through all of the effort for a dud, then she would be without a plan. Kallen could talk about assembling a new team all she wanted, but they didn’t know enough to bring Camelot down. For that they needed Lelouch. And, to get Lelouch, they needed to coax him out of hiding. As far as C.C. knew, there was only one way to do that.

C.C. gave the body on the floor one last look, settling a hand on Suzaku’s shoulder before closing her eyes.

From the start it was obvious that she wouldn’t have much to work with. Most of Suzaku’s consciousness had been gone for a year now, leaving behind the little twitches of energy that were left behind, and even those were almost gone. From her initial scan, she was sure that she was almost too late.

She sighed, relaxing into a more comfortable position before she started to tug at the fragments of energy. The first few were hard to set in place, C.C. feeling herself start to sweat as she tried to get them into the approximate shape of what they had been. Some of the strands refused to stay in place, C.C. having to layer them over and over again until she got something like the pattern that had been there. The gaps were glaring, C.C. analyzing their structure. It could pass for a good job, if C.C. wasn’t sure that it would all fall apart the moment she pushed the corpse back towards life.

C.C. let some of the streams of energy go, most of them falling away. She gave herself a moment to gloat that the entire thing hadn’t completely dissolved before going back to her poking. The easy way wouldn’t work, there wasn’t enough left for that, so she would have to get creative.

She rolled her shoulders, hearing something crack and feeling it settle into place. She ignored it, her focus on something within the energy remaining.

There weren’t any memories left, but there were echoes, little fragments zipping around as the energy dissipated. She caught glimpses of a house in Area 11, an invasion force and barracks. C.C. pulled her attention away, trying to find something recent, something that she could use to coax energy back.

She could find anger, surprise and rage, nothing that would work. She didn’t want to bring back someone bent on revenge. It had to be an even range, something that was durable.

C.C. poked along one of the strands of energy that had remained attached to the others, nearly jolted out of her trance at the memory that was embedded all the way up its length.

_LIVE!_

The word echoed along the energy, C.C. watching as the command seemed to cement the nearby strands. She hummed to herself, prodding at the strands. They were sticking now, holding together far better than before. C.C. hummed to herself and layered a few other strands over. She manipulated them until she got another shout of the command, watching as the strands stuck.

She grinned to herself, picking up the other strands and starting to set them in place. She doubted that it would be enough to bring Suzaku back, but it would be a firm framework. After that, she needed nothing more than time as the body remembered how to function.

C.C. rocked back, feeling the start of a headache. She reached up to rub at her temples. That was enough for the day; she would let the whole thing sit and then come back to see if anything had stuck. If it hadn’t then she would just have to start over again, although C.C. doubted that it would start falling apart. There was something in the command that wouldn’t allow that.

She checked the sheet around the body before walking over to the thermostat, turning it down. With the structure in place it would start drawing energy in, hopefully to the point where the gaps would be filled in. If not, then it was time for her to start digging up some of the old books that she had tucked away. There might be something there, although C.C. didn’t like the idea of a cobbled together job, she didn’t want the whole thing falling apart on her.

She drummed her fingers against the thermostat, turning to give the sheet covered form a long look before shaking her head. She didn’t doubt that bringing Suzaku back would be worth the effort. The Black Knights had worked together well before and C.C. was sure that the team would work again. It was just a matter of getting one of their key players out of his grave and the other out of his sulk.


	13. Dew

Euphemia dragged herself along the ground, panting for breath as she kicked her feet free of the hole. She glanced back behind her, checking to see if anyone had spotted her before quickly crawling a few feet forward. From what she could see there wasn’t any cover, which meant that she had to keep low to the ground.

She kept moving forward until she was sure that she was far enough away from the hole that the ground wouldn’t give way on her. Then she turned, staring back at where she had come from.

In the darkness she could just make out the shape of the wall that enclosed the garden, Euphemia smiling at the sight. The wall itself was a good distance from the hole, meaning that she had overshot but at least two feet. But that didn’t matter when it had gotten her closer to the stand of trees by the house. Euphemia eyed the trees, tempted to just run for them, but she couldn’t get ahead of herself.

She scanned the wall, looking for any signs of guards. Euphemia frowned when she couldn’t see any. She bit her lip before pushing to her feet. Euphemia gave the wall one last look before taking off for the trees.

The trees weren’t a real forest, but there was enough cover for her to catch her breath and work through what she had to do next. 

Heading to a town would be her best bet, although that would take a miracle. She didn’t know where he had been taken or if there was a place that she could run to for help. For all she knew, she was stuck out in the middle of nowhere. She could run, but she was sure that the men would be able to outdistance her, they were the ones with the cars. Since that was the case, it might be worth her while to track back and see what she could grab. It meant that she would run the risk of getting caught again, but Euphemia was sure that it would be worth it.

She glanced out around the tree, taking a deep breath. She was still in the clear. 

Euphemia dragged a hand through her hair, pulling it up only to realize that she had nothing to hold it with. She let out her breath slowly, letting her hair fall back down. She glanced down at her clothes before shrugging and hiking her skirt up. She didn’t want to risk tripping over it if she needed to run.

Euphemia fiddled with the knot that she had tied, giving the empty space between her and the compound. It wasn’t a hard run, she had done longer back in school. She rolled her shoulders, taking a few deep breaths before sprinting out into the open field.


	14. Clouds

Suzaku blinked slowly, his chest feeling strangely heavy. He turned his head to the side, frowning when he couldn’t recognize the room. Or he thought he didn’t, it was hard to tell when his head felt muddled. Suzaku swallowed and propped himself up onto his elbows, giving the room a long look over.

It couldn’t have been in the Aries Villa because the rooms were too small, but the rooms didn’t look like the bedrooms that had been set up in Camelot. The rooms might have been temporary, but they were still for the Rounds, which meant that they had some kind of special comfort.

Suzaku slumped back onto the bed, letting his eyes start to close. If it had been exhausting to sit up slightly, he didn’t want to push himself too much farther. His eyes fluttered closed, Suzaku’s mind lingering over the idea of being in his room back in Camelot. There was something in that thought, something that bugged him.

He frowned, picking at that thought as he drifted off. There had been an argument and then…

Suzaku jerked on the bed, sure that he felt the impact of the bullets that had slammed into his torso. He gasped for breath, glancing around the room. It was still unrecognizable, but that wasn’t his concern. 

Suzaku pressed his palms against his bed, pushing himself upright. He swayed in place, holding still just long enough for the world to stop spinning so violently. Then he was reaching up to pull the shirt off of his head.

It was hard to see in the dim light of the room, Suzaku growling under his breath. He ran a shaking hand over his chest, fully expecting to find healing wounds or a gaping wound. But there was nothing.

He sucked his a quick breath, letting it out just as quickly. It felt wrong to hold his breath in for too long. It felt all too familiar.

Suzaku felt his arms shake, ignoring them until they gave out from under him, toppling him back into the bed. The sudden fall made him go still, Suzaku staring at the ceiling.

He could feel the places where the bullets had gone in burning, could feel the blood leaking out of him slowly. Even with his healing factor, he wouldn’t have survived that. He couldn’t heal after bleeding out, it was impossible.

Suzaku groped for his wrist, pressing his fingers against his pulse point and counting. For the first few moments he couldn’t feel anything, Suzaku’s breath catching in his throat. He let it out in a rush when he felt his pulse, coughing at the sudden rush of air.

He curled up, gasping for air after his coughing fit. He jerked as a hand rested on his shoulder, the motion getting another round of coughing out of him.

The hand didn’t leave his shoulder, instead rubbing up and down his back. Suzaku shivered at the touch, lifting his head to look at whoever was there.

His heart skipped a beat as they leaned over, Lelouch’s name on his lips before he caught himself. Even half delirious, he would know that face anywhere.

Suzaku relaxed back against the bed, gasping for breath. Between gasps, he managed to get out a name. “C.C.”

He heard her sigh, her hand moving from his back to his hair. She patted his head before letting her hand rest there. “You’re safe.”

He wanted to ask her how, but it was hard while he was trying to calm his breathing down. C.C. seemed to understand, keeping a steady hand on his head as he worked through it. The way she patted his head was almost motherly, Suzaku confused by the attention that she was paying him.

Suzaku twisted, intending on asking her what was going on. He didn’t get a chance, C.C. smoothing her hand over the side of his face. “Idiot. You’re not ready for this.”

He wheezed, the sound coming out enough like a question that C.C. shook her head. “Give it a few more hours. Everything needs to remember how to be alive.”

She trailed her fingers down the side of his face, Suzaku feeling his eyes start to close. He tried to fight it, remembering the cold nothingness that he had started awake from, but whatever C.C. had done to him was too much. The warmth of her touch steadied him as he sunk back into the darkness.


	15. Music

Nunnally dragged her fingers over the keys of the piano, almost too afraid to put any pressure on them. The house was too quiet as it was, but it felt wrong to play music. All the songs she knew were happy, joyous things and it didn’t seem like the right time.

She let her hands drop back into her lap, glancing over at the library. She didn’t know if Lelouch was there, she hadn’t heard him moving since she had called him for dinner the night before. Nunnally hadn’t expected him to come, but she had to make the effort or else she was sure that Lelouch would tuck himself into some far off corner of the villa and never come out. Nunnally wasn’t sure if she would be more alone then or if she felt more alone now.

Nunnally sighed and rubbed her legs, glancing over at the clock on the mantle. There were another four hours before she had to start dinner, a long time before Sayoko came to help her. There were a few things that she could do, like going out into the back gardens and puling the weeds. Maybe if she did that, then Lelouch would come out of wherever he was hiding. There might be a chance of her catching sight of her brother then.

As nice as spending some time outside sounded, Nunnally didn’t like the idea of leaving her brother alone in the house. They were already separate, and she didn’t want to encourage it. She understood that Lelouch was hurting, but there were others that were suffering too. The Black Knights had been the closest thing that all of them had had to a family.

She bit her lip, giving the library one last look before backing her wheelchair away from the piano. She wouldn’t be going outside, but there was still something that she could do that would keep her close. Lelouch might not want to talk to her, but being there might help him. It had helped when she was at her lowest point. Nunnally might not have wanted to see her brother, but the feeling of having people around had helped.

Nunnally guided her wheelchair over to an open space on the floor, careful to lock it in place. She took a deep breath, looking down at her legs.

It had been a while since she had done the proper exercise routine that the doctors had told her to do. She hadn’t completely neglected them, but there had never seemed to be time to really go through all of them. Or maybe she hadn’t made time. The exercises were a reminder of what she couldn’t do anymore.

She rubbed her thigh, looking out the window towards the gardens, quashing the urge to go outside and run. She could still remember when she would have gone out and run ten miles before breakfast, moving faster than anything she came across. Sometimes, she would go out to the fields on the far side of Pendragon and race the horses, making sure to keep pace with them as they ran across the fields.

She still dreamed about those mornings.

Nunnally sighed, her hand moving off her thigh and around to her back. If she leaned forward, she would be able to touch the scars that crisscrossed her lower back. If didn’t matter that she couldn’t really feel the area where most of the scars were, she still remembered the flash of pain from where she had been thrown hard into the building, and where the glass and iron scraps had fallen into her.

She jerked her hand away from her back, quickly reaching forward to flick the brake off. Nunnally sent her wheelchair forward, heading for the door to the garden. She needed to do her exercises, but she didn’t think she could handle doing them right now. More than anything she needed to get outside, to break out of what confines that she could. In the garden, she could pick a bouquet for the dinner table and check to see if Lelouch was lurking in any windows.

If her brother wasn’t in sight, then she would enjoy the outside air.

Suzaku might have been buried elsewhere, but the villa sometimes felt like a tomb. Lelouch seemed to prefer that, but Nunnally couldn’t. She had only gotten this far by being optimistic, and Nunnally was afraid what would happen if she buckled like Lelouch had.

She swung open the door to the garden, taking a deep breath before easing her wheelchair down the ramp. The last time she had checked the gardens, the roses had looked like they were ready to bloom. She didn’t know what other flowers were blooming, but she was sure than it would be better than sitting in dark and bare rooms.


	16. Return

Suzaku jolted awake, breathing heavily as looked around him. He pressed a hand to his rapidly beating heart, his mind taken up with the sound of Lelouch’s voice echoing in his head.

_LIVE!_

He shook his head, the clamor dying down as everything stabilized. Suzaku swallowed and leaned back against the seat.

In the next seat over, C.C. glanced at him. She quickly turned her attention back to the road, but not before he saw the corner of her mouth twitch. It wasn’t a smile, it was more of the annoyed looked that she had been throwing him every once and a while.

Suzaku had trouble unpacking the looks, especially since C.C. didn’t tend to stick around after giving him one. Usually she stormed off to tinker around with whatever she had used to bring him back to life.

He reached up to rub at his shoulder and chest, feeling places where the bullets had slammed into him. Suzaku traced the area over his heart, pressing a bit just to reassure himself that it was real. 

The whole argument had seemed like some kind of twisted nightmare, from the realization of what was really going on in Camelot to looking up from where Lelouch was holding a gun at him to where Luciano Bradley was firing from the doorway.

Suzaku still didn’t understand everything that was going on. He had just been too angry that Lelouch had been hiding something so important from him. The anger was still there, burning at the back of his mind, but it wasn’t as important as figuring out what had happened.

C.C. hadn’t been forthcoming, she seemed to be more interested in keeping him alive. Suzaku shot her a quick glance, his mind working over the problem of the woman.

When they had been working together in the Black Knights she had just been the immortal one. She hadn’t let information about herself slip, so it was no wonder that they didn’t know the whole story. The only reason Suzaku wasn’t angrier about that was the fact that he was sure that Lelouch hadn’t known the whole story either. If he had, Suzaku was sure that he wouldn’t have woken up with only C.C. hovering over him as he struggled to breathe.

He dragged his fingers away from where the bullets had hit him, letting his hands fall to his lap. If he had woken up with anyone else Suzaku was sure that he would have gotten the whole story of what had happened while he had been dead. As soon as he had been able to move around on his own C.C. had bundled him into the car and had started out without telling him where they were going.

It had become clear enough once they had gotten away from the tangle of the warehouses along the river. Suzaku was familiar with almost all of the routes back to the Aries Villa.

Suzaku rolled his shoulder, feeling it move oddly in places where it was still healing.

He jumped when C.C. slapped the arm closest to her. “You want that to heal?” She didn’t give him the time to answer. “Then stop.”

Suzaku followed her order, leaning back in his seat. “Will it heal?”

“Give it time. You have to reset to normal. So don’t go running into trouble, whatever Lelouch did to your head won’t stop everything.”

Suzaku bit his lip to keep himself from snapping back that he realized that. He wouldn’t have been in this position if it hadn’t. Then again, he didn’t want to think about what he would have done if Luciano Bradley hadn’t stopped him in his tracks. 

He groaned and rubbed a hand over his eyes. “Who’s going to be there?”

“Lelouch.” C.C. paused for a moment before shaking her head. “The rest of them are hiding. We’re all fugitives with everything that Charles has been turning out. The Knights of the Round are the only ones allowed to defend the empire now. You’re working outside of the government.”

Suzaku flinched at the reminder, but he shuffled the thought away. That was something he could work through later, once he figured out just what they were facing.

“Kallen and Gino?”

“They’re working on reinforcements. Last I heard they were in Japan.”

“We need reinforcements?”

“You wanted to root this out, right? Lelouch will want to take action too, in revenge for Euphy.”

Suzaku sighed at the mention of Euphemia. He wanted to ask what had happened to her, but he was almost afraid to. He had seen what had happened to the ones that hadn’t been saved in time and the sight of them had turned his stomach.

He clutched at the car door, almost glad that his strength wasn’t back up to its normal level. If it was, the handle would have been crushed and he wouldn’t be able to get out of the car.

He turned his gaze to the scenery outside of the window, his heart pounding faster when he caught a quick glimpse of the villa. Suzaku found himself leaning towards the window, almost desperate to get back to the villa.

If they had stayed there, just stayed the Black Knights, then none of this would have happened.

C.C. turned the car onto the drive, Suzaku leaning out to watch as the villa loomed up.

He felt his breath catch, Lelouch’s command kicking in for a moment before sinking away. He fumbled for the door handle, ready to jump out of the car and run for the villa.

Suzaku froze when C.C. pulled the car over to the far side of the drive. She turned it off and turned to look at him. She gave him a long, serious look before unlocking the doors. “Be careful with him.”

The almost whispered words made him stop, Suzaku looking over at her. “Why?”

“He doesn’t know we’re coming.”

“You didn’t tell him?”

“I haven’t been able to tell him anything. He’s locked himself up there since after your funeral.” She slipped out of the car before he could ask her any more questions.

Suzaku stumbled out of the car, watching as she walked towards the villa. He glanced at the house, feeling a sudden sense of dread.

If C.C. wanted him to convince Lelouch to come back to them then she had miscalculated. The last thing that he had done was yell and threaten Lelouch, it wasn’t something that would inspire confidence in Lelouch.

Suzaku sighed and leaned back on the car, shoving his hands into his pockets. It seemed like a loosely cobbled together plan, nothing like what he was used to working under. Then again, C.C. had said that Lelouch hadn’t been involved in anything. And it wasn’t hard to figure out why.

He reached up to rub at the sore spot, jerking his hand to a stop before he could touch his shoulder. Suzaku glanced back down at his hand before shaking his head. 

He owned Lelouch more than an apology. An apology wouldn’t cover the accusations or the attempt to kill him, but Suzaku didn’t know what he could do to make up for all of that other than promise his service again.

Suzaku curled his fingers into a fist. Sitting outside of the villa wouldn’t do anything to help take down Camelot and the Knights of the Round, nor would it help anything between the two of them.

He let his fingers uncurl, Suzaku staring at them before shaking himself. He gave the villa one last glance before striding across the lawn to meet C.C. by the door.


	17. Halloween

Lelouch heard the front door of the mansion open, flinching at the sound. He slumped further into his chair, glaring out the window into the backyard of the villa. He had hoped that Nunnally would ignore the sound of someone knocking. 

No one of importance had visited them before, no one other than C.C, Kallen and Gino, but he hadn’t wanted to talk to any of them. All they wanted to talk about was a way to get the Black Knights back together, like that was the solution to everything. They were all too blind.

The problem wouldn’t be solved by getting the Black Knights together again, the group was too small to fight back against what Camelot had become. That’s what he had encouraged them to merge in the first place. With Camelot they could actively work to better the world instead of scraping out what little saves that they could. Instead they had just helped the corruption. Lelouch was still horrified that it had gone on under his nose without him noticing. Because of that, it was his fault that all of those people had been kidnapped and tortured until they had promised to remain silent.

It was his fault that Suzaku was dead.

He curled up further in his chair, turning away from the window. He didn’t want to look outside, he just wanted to sink further into his own mind until no one could get him out. It wouldn’t solve any problems, but it was better that he wasn’t around for that. He was already a target because he had briefly been a director of Camelot, but also because he knew the secret. If the rest of them wanted to save the world, they would be better off without him.

Lelouch gritted his teeth at the sound of voices, lifting his head slightly when they got louder. From the sound of it, Nunnally was leading the visitors further into the house, which could only mean that they were members of their old team.

He remained seated for a moment more before standing up and storming over to the library doors. If he shut them, then Nunnally would get the idea that he didn’t want to be disturbed, and they might leave him alone.

It was clear that he had waited too long when he saw the group in the hallway. Nunnally had her head tipped back in her wheelchair as she talked to C.C. Even in the echoing hallway he couldn’t hear what they were talking about, not that it mattered. It was beyond him now.

He met C.C’s gaze, about to yank the doors shut when he saw the third member of the group. He stared at the familiar figure before shaking his head, his gaze darting down to meet Nunnally’s. It was a shock to see that his sister wasn’t as surprised, she just had a worried look on her face.

Nunnally turned her wheelchair towards him, Lelouch wanting to shrink back from her. He shot a glance at the third person before shaking his head. “Get them out of here.”

Lelouch went to pull the doors closed, looking up as he heard someone walking over to the library.

Suzaku covered the distance in quick strides, the determination in his face painfully familiar. But it couldn’t be Suzaku, because Lelouch had seen the man die. He had fired the first shot that had killed him. He had been in Suzaku’s mind when he felt it die. He had gone to the funeral, standing by while they had buried his teammate, his friend. He had dodged the guards put on him by Camelot to visit that same grave a few times before the guilt had been too much.

If he had paid attention, then he could have saved them. He could have saved _Suzaku_.

Lelouch shook his head and threw his weight against the door, yelping when it came to an abrupt stop. He glanced up at the fingers that were curled around the edge of the door, pushing back against Suzaku before retreating. Nothing good would come out of a battle of strength, he knew that much. It was better to retreat and get a better view of the situation. Whoever he was seeing couldn’t be Suzaku, he knew that much, but there were flickers of surface thought, which meant that Lelouch could use the one weapon left to him.

He stumbled back against his chair, digging his fingers into the fabric as he stared at the man that was standing in front of him. Even with the tempting thoughts just out of his reach, he couldn’t bring himself to reach in. He was afraid to find out what had been cobbled together in the mind of the poor man in front of him. It wasn’t Suzaku, which meant that they had dragged some other sorry soul through Project Orange. Lelouch didn’t want to reach in to find Suzaku’s thought patterns and memories stamped onto another person.

He leaned further back against the chair, feeling it rock into its front legs. “Get back.”

“Lelouch-”

“No.” He turned his head to the side so he could see his sister. “Nunnally, get them out of here. We’re not taking visitors.”

“I think it’s time we do.” She gave him a mournful look, Lelouch not sure how to read the expression. It was hard when there was the copy so close to him.

He swallowed and shot a glare at C.C. “I’m not doing this.”

“You are, Lelouch.” He flinched and dragged his gaze back to the man that was standing in front of him. “It’s been too long.”

“It’s been a  _year_.” He pointed at C.C, not daring to look away from the man. “She mourned my mother longer. Why can’t I do the same?”

“There’s no time.”

“Of course there is! Everything’s already been done, there’s no way to save this damn nation. I was too late.”

“It can be fixed.”

“How?” Lelouch glared at him, becoming impatient under the placid stare. He watched the man to lash out, to do something that wouldn’t be like Suzaku. That would be a relief, firm evidence that everyone was just trying to trick him back into action.

Or maybe this was his big hint. Lelouch couldn’t imagine Suzaku just standing calmly and letting himself be yelled at. If anything, Suzaku could be continuing the argument that they had been having before he had been killed. It would be easier that way, to continue yelling at each other and part on caustic words. Then he would never have to check if this was his Suzaku, or just a cruel attempt to get him to do what everyone wanted him to.

He curled his hands into fists, taking a step forward. “I killed you. Don’t you remember that?”

He hissed the words out through clenched teeth, watching as the man flinched, but he didn’t step back. Instead, the man just shook his head.

“No.”

“Yes, I was there.” Lelouch made a vague motion up towards his head, watching the man’s eyes widen.

“No.”

“You damn idiot. I killed you!” The words echoed around in the library, Lelouch barely hearing the soft gasp that Nunnally gave. He didn’t care what his sister thought of him at the moment. What he wanted was the man to get away from him. He wanted to be left alone.

He lashed out at the man’s mind, locking him in place so Lelouch could dodge around him. He only managed to start a hold, freezing when he felt something lurking in man’s mind, something that echoed in every place that Lelouch looked.

_LIVE!_

Lelouch jerked away, stumbling backwards until he bumped into the chair. He felt the chair rock back, losing his hold on it as it fell to the ground. He took another step back, his feet tangling with the fallen chair and tipping him over.

He didn’t bother to catch himself when he fell to the ground, all he cared about was that it was away from the man standing over him because nothing made sense.

It was the order he had given to Suzaku alone, the order that should have died with him. Lelouch was sure that the orders couldn’t be transferred, they were paths created in the neurons of the brain, specific paths that could never be recreated or rearranged. It was all the proof that he could ever need, but it didn’t make sense.

He watched at the man knelt down, staring at the hand that was offered to him. Lelouch found himself reaching out, his own hand shaking. He stopped himself just over the offered hand, curling his fingers slightly. “I felt you die.”

Suzaku shrugged slightly. “I’m not dead now.”

Lelouch swallowed and dropped his hand onto Suzaku’s, splaying his fingers out over Suzaku’s wrist. He could feel a pulse, Lelouch pressing his fingers into the point and counting out the beats. It was steady and strong, too much so to be a trick of his mind. He licked his lips and reached for Suzaku’s mind, ruffling through it lightly to feel the familiar pattern of thoughts. He stopped himself just short of diving in deeper, staring at Suzaku.

Everything was telling him that it was Suzaku, there were too many things that were falling perfectly into place. Besides, it hurt too much to be wary. He might not get everything he wanted out of the world, but maybe it had decided to give him a break for once. Even then, that was too easy. The world wasn’t like a fairy tale, everyone had to fight for what they wanted, had to fight for peace. Things weren’t just handed back to him.

He tightened his hold on Suzaku’s wrist, pressing his fingers more firmly against the pulse point. It still beat steadily on, its presence reassuring. Lelouch knew that minds could play tricks on people, he had used that fact liberally before. But this was something that he couldn’t imagine up. If he thought of Suzaku, it was never with a pulse.

A tug on is hand brought his attention back to Suzaku. He allowed Suzaku to practically lift him back to his feet, stumbling a little when he was back upright. Suzaku kept a tight hold on his hand the entire time, not even letting go when Lelouch was standing on his own. He squeezed Lelouch’s hand, giving him a long look over.

“I’m not dead.”

Lelouch nodded at the repetition, more to acknowledge that he’d heard Suzaku than because he believed it. Everything was lining up properly, but that made him more wary than anything.

“Lelouch.” He started as C.C. said his name, looking over Suzaku’s shoulder at the woman. He narrowed his eyes at her, trying to pick out just what she wanted out of all of this when the woman gestured out of the library. “We have things to discuss.”

He gave her a curt nod, stepping around Suzaku and heading for the door. Lelouch guessed that she was going to push for something to do about Camelot, but that could wait. It had waited a year and it could wait longer. The pressing matter had hand was Suzaku, and Lelouch knew he was going to have to push hard to get anything about that from her.

He stormed out of the library, keeping a tight hold of Suzaku’s hand. Torn between lingering doubts and the start of joy that he could feel bubbling up, he didn’t want to let go of Suzaku’s hand. Some childish part of him was still afraid that Suzaku would disappear on him. Until he was sure about what was going on, he was going to keep holding onto Suzaku.


	18. Quietus

Luciano came to an abrupt stop when he came to the director’s office.

The door was ajar, something that it hadn’t been for a year. Luciano glanced around, fully expecting Bismarck to come back down the hall from where he had been called away, but there was no one there. The last check of the building had shown that that only the night crew were in. The rest of the Rounds were either off on a mission or had gone home. Luciano had done a check of the updated rotation, just to be sure that he would be getting a few days off.

He frowned and reached out for the door, intending to pull it closed. He was tempted to duck into Bismarck’s office and pick through the files, but he wasn’t sure when Bismarck would be back. Their leader had been on edge lately, and Luciano didn’t want to present himself as an easy target. He would hold back on his snooping until a better time, when Camelot wasn’t still in chaos.

Luciano couldn’t stop himself from looking around the office, freezing when he saw the person sitting behind the desk. Even at first glance he could tell that it wasn’t Bismarck, the silhouette wasn’t right. He narrowed his eyes, tensing when recognized the person sitting behind the desk. “Lelouch?”

“That’s director to you.” Lelouch didn’t bother to move behind the desk. “Which I, technically, still am.”

“Tell that to Bismarck.” Luciano leaned against the frame of the door, leaving the uneasy shifting to his mind. As long as he kept it on small things and safely behind the mental shielding Lelouch wouldn’t be able to read his mind. That meant he was free to study the man and wonder.

Lelouch all but quit the year before after the incident with the Knight of Seven. Bismarck had managed to spin it to a Round out of control, it had been easy with the way that the new recruits had been annoying the real boss of Camelot. With the emperor on their side, it was easy to get anything they needed, which had left Lelouch to sulk in his mansion. Luciano hadn’t thought that Lelouch would ever bother to come back, not with what he knew.

He had been for killing Lelouch, but he had been outvoted. Luciano only hoped that Bismarck would come around so he could point out how he was right. Lelouch hadn’t been content to stay in the Aries Villa. Something must have encouraged him to come out, which was worrying. Sir Maycott and Sir Woods had been assigned to watch him, and Lelouch had still managed to sneak out and into the Camelot building.

“I was hoping to find you. There’s a lot of you I have to talk to, Bismarck especially. I want to ask why he replaced active members of the Rounds.”

Luciano snorted, not liking the way that Lelouch focused on him. It was nothing like the Lelouch they had gotten from the reports, which made him reach for his gun. This Lelouch was dangerous and unpredictable; it almost made him want to smile. It had been a while since any mission he’d had was a challenge. Kidnapping people on the emperor’s orders had been the wrong kind of challenge, there was no glory in the planning, only in the kill. Besides, he had never killed a telepath, at least that he knew of. It would be interesting to watch Lelouch die. There was a new spice to a person who could try and preserve their awareness. It made Luciano want to see the knowledge that he was going to die cross Lelouch’s face.

He wrapped his fingers around his gun, pausing when Lelouch stood up.

The telepath glared at him for a moment before stepping around the table. “I know what’s being going on here. I was blind before, but that’s not going to happen again. Things will change, even if I have to tear Camelot apart to do it.”

Luciano snorted and pulled his gun out, grinning when he saw Lelouch flinch back. Lelouch might have been able to tell what he was going to do, but people were always shocked at the realization that someone would want to kill them. He watched Lelouch sway in place, knowing that he had won when the man took a step back.

Luciano followed him, stepping into the office. He reached behind him to push the door, listening to it start to swing shut. His focus quickly moved away from the door and back to Lelouch. The telepath might have been frightened, but he was still dangerous. Frightened people often were.

He laughed as he herded Lelouch back towards the desk, the sound petering out quickly when he trapped Lelouch back against the desk. Luciano pressed the muzzle of the gun against Lelouch’s head, grinning down at him. “You want to go against Britannia? You and what army?” Lelouch opened his mouth to respond, but Luciano shook his head and pressed the barrel of the gun more firmly against Lelouch’s head. “Uh-uh, quiet. If I feel you in my head, I pull the trigger.”

The expression that crossed Lelouch’s face was worth it. Luciano leaned in, savoring the expression. What Lelouch didn’t know was that it didn’t matter, Luciano would be taking care of him no matter what. He didn’t care what Bismarck had to say, it was better to take out the threat now. Besides, he needed the satisfaction after teasing himself with the idea for so long.

He sighed and pulled back at bit, looking Lelouch over before shaking his head. “You were in over your head, and you still don’t get it. Should I kill another one of yours? Will that help?” He saw Lelouch’s eyes widen, unable to stop himself from pushing further. “What about that red head? I’m sure she’d scream nicely.”

An array of emotions crossed Lelouch’s face, almost too quickly to track, but they ended on something too close to hope for Luciano’s liking.

He went to crowd Lelouch closer to the desk, freezing when he heard the sound of footsteps coming down the hall. Luciano shot a triumphant look at Lelouch before taking a step back. He didn’t dare move his aim from Lelouch, but he did turn slightly to see who was walking towards the office.

“Don’t bother with cuffs. We’re going to take care of this one right now. I’ll square things with Bis…” His voice trailed off when he saw the person standing in the doorway.

Luciano knew that he hadn’t seen this person before. They looked like one of the masked vigilantes from the old days before Camelot had been founded, dressed in black, purple and gold with a mask. The plastic on the front of the mask was tinted so Luciano couldn’t see through it, which unnerved him just as much at the slight tilt to the masked man’s head. He was standing in a room, holding a gun to Lelouch’s head and a masked man of unknown alliance was just watching.

He gritted his teeth, and shoved Lelouch roughly against the desk. That got a reaction out of the masked man, but only a slight shifting of his weight. Luciano watched the cape swirl around him before shaking his head. “Get over to that corner where I can see you. Do it or I’ll shoot him.”

The masked man tipped his head to the side, Luciano getting the impression that he was studying the situation. He shifted in place, not comfortable dealing with two unknowns. The masked man wasn’t a danger at the moment, and he had done so well getting Lelouch ready. If the man wasn’t scared away, then Luciano could deal with him. The night team could take care of the corpses.

He turned back to Lelouch, shoving the muzzle of the gun back against the man’s head. Luciano expected to see the same fear there, but it was gone, replaced by a smugness that he didn’t like. Lelouch’s attention had even shifted away to the man standing behind Luciano.

“Suzaku…”

Luciano smiled at that. He hadn’t expected Lelouch to be so far gone to be hallucinating his dead friend, but at least that was a step above being amused as he started down death. He leaned closer, focusing completely on Lelouch. “He’s dead, remember? You’re the one who shot him.”

He didn’t get the time to gloat over the shock that crossed Lelouch’s face because the masked man grabbed his arm. Luciano jerked his hand away, spinning around to aim the gun at the man’s chest.

The man didn’t seem to be intimidated, coolly staring him down. “No, you did that.”

Luciano opened his mouth to refute the claim when he felt the first tendrils of something other in his mind. His eyes widening as he realized that he had forgotten completely about Lelouch before he was yanked to a stop by the foreign presence in his mind.

He heard Lelouch laugh, not sure if it was out loud or in his mind. It was hard to tell when he kept getting glimpses of the glee that Lelouch felt as the telepath got a better hold on his mind.

“I’ve got him, Suzaku. Get the gun.”

The masked man took the gun from his hands, Luciano struggling against Lelouch’s hold. He couldn’t curl his fingers in time to get a better hold, only able to watch as the masked man turned the gun towards him.

“Good, now shoot him.”

Luciano felt his breathing speed up, watching as the gun was aimed at his heart before it was abruptly holstered. Lelouch’s surprise echoed around in his head, almost loud enough to drown out his own shock.

The masked man just rested his hand over the gun tucked into his belt. “This isn’t about revenge.”

“Of course it is!” Luciano reeled at Lelouch’s rage in his head, but the telepath didn’t even let him move. Lelouch pushed away from the desk and stormed around Luciano. “It’s about making sure that the monsters that allowed this to happen are taken care of.”

“Lelouch-”

“I won’t allow this to happen again! I’m not losing  _any_  of you again, not one more person.”

Lelouch panted for breath, Luciano’s gaze darting to where the masked man was still shaking his head. The man reached back, Luciano hearing a click as something at the back of his mask disengaged. His eyes widened when the man pulled the mask from his head, staring into Suzaku’s face.

He wanted to shake his head, to shout at the man standing across from him, because his aim had been good. It had been the perfect kill, perfect emotions and it had been taken away from him.

Suzaku shook his head again. “I’m not going to kill him.”

Lelouch’s face contorted into a sneer before he turned around to face Luciano again. “Fine. Then I will.”

Luciano only had a moment to realize that Lelouch hadn’t reached for the gun in Suzaku’s belt before he felt the Lelouch’s presence in his mind shift. It twisted, Luciano screaming in pain before everything went black.


	19. Wish

Lelouch watched the young man that cringed on the floor in front of them, keeping tabs on his surface thoughts even as he watched Kallen make her way around the room. Kallen was focused on the files and the weapons that she was finding tucked away in drawers and secret compartments. The man kept looking over at her with wide eyes, but Lelouch didn’t think it was with fear. With the way the man’s mind was running, he was watching and waiting for a chance to escape.

Lelouch drummed his fingers against the desk he was leaning against, glancing down at the papers that littered the surface from Kallen’s earlier search. He paged through a file, pretending to read it as he monitored the man’s mind.

When their captive was truly distracted with what Kallen was doing, he spoke up. “So you went right from Project Orange to Camelot.”

With the way that the man whipped his head around to look at Lelouch, the information that he had skimmed from the files was right. Lelouch grinned and let the papers drop back to the desk, focusing on what he was getting from the man’s mind now that he was surprised. “That seems like something that they would do. After all, the project had been supplying agents to them.”

“How do you-”

“We took it down three years ago.” Kallen was the one to speak up, not bothering to look away from where she was reaching into the wall. “Forget whatever Camelot told you; that was us.”

The man shook his head, Lelouch letting him wallow in his confusion for a moment before pushing on. “We have all of your records from your Project Orange days and now, we have all of this. You really were careless letting all of this lie around.” Lelouch watched the man grit his teeth, quickly pushing down on the man to keep him from using his power. “What’s sloppier is the lack of research on your end. Or are you being given bad information?”

From the way that the man stopped struggling against his hold. Lelouch barely kept himself from smiling, going back to lazily looking the files that the man had left out. “After all, you weren’t prepared for what Kallen could do, even with your own power to stop time. And no one prepared you for a telepath. If Camelot is trying to treat you like an agent, they should have prepared you, Rolo.”

The use of his name made the man flinch, Lelouch using that time to wiggle a bit further into Rolo’s mind. He kept his touch light, merely waiting to see if Rolo would try and freeze them and run. Kallen still hadn’t cleared the room of weapons or files and Lelouch had only started the interrogation because she needed the time.

He closed the file, turning to drop it back on the desk. “It’s almost like they want to get rid of you.”

From the way that Rolo pressed his lips together, Lelouch had hit the nail on the head. He barely kept himself from grinning, it was too early to give the game away.

“That’s a shame. They should know what an asset you are. After all, you got top marks from Project Orange, and you’ve been nothing but helpful to Camelot. All of this is brilliant, and they’re just letting you rot away in the field. That’s not how we operate, right Kallen?”

Kallen stopped her digging, shooting Lelouch an annoyed look. He shrugged at her, not bothering to brush over her mind to get a better picture of what she was thinking. He knew that she was tired of getting dragged along on recruitment drives, especially since Lelouch was steering them towards people that had come from Project Orange. She still had a deep mistrust of anyone who came from the project, especially since they had spent much of their time fighting against the things that had come from them. Lelouch was sure that he would get a lecture as soon as they got back to the villa, but he didn’t care.

If they were going to defeat Camelot, they needed all the people they could get, especially people within Camelot.

He turned his attention away from her, Lelouch kneeling down on the floor. He saw Rolo’s eyes widen, giving the young man a gentle smile. “They’ve told you about the transmitter in your neck, right? That it will kill you if you step out of line?” Rolo reached up to touch the back of his neck, Lelouch watching the motion. “If you’re really on their side, they wouldn’t do that. And they wouldn’t be standing behind the law to make sure that all people with powers are tracked, maybe with transmitters like yours. You’ve put your life in the hands of people who don’t even care.”

“Why should you?”

“Because you and I are alike. We never asked for these powers, but we aren’t any different from the rest of the world. Besides, they’re more people with powers now, so why should we be cowering in fear.”

“You think it would be better to rule them.”

“No, but why should we be kept separate? Why should they decide that we aren’t people just like the rest of them? What gives them the right to kill us? What gives them the right to kill you?”

Rolo was quiet for a moment, Lelouch nodding at him. He slipped out of the man’s mind completely, watching Rolo carefully. It didn’t look like the man would try to stop them, he was too busy contemplating the facts that Lelouch had laid before him.

Lelouch stood up and walked across the room, grabbing Kallen’s arm as he passed her. She dragged her heels as he tried to haul her towards the door, giving him a long look. Lelouch rolled his eyes, catching what she was projecting his way.

_“We can’t just leave him. There’s too much information here and he knows who we are.”_

_“The whole empire knows who we are.”_

Kallen huffed and crossed her arms, having to jerk one away from Lelouch to finish the move. She stormed out of the room ahead of him, Lelouch keeping his pace slow.

Everything was put into place, all the seeds of doubt lined up even without him having to use his powers to nudge them into place.

“Wait.” Lelouch jerked to a stop, turning to look back at where Rolo was sitting on the ground. The man played with the end of his shirt before he seemed to realize what he was doing and dropped his hands away. Rolo took a deep breath, Lelouch seeing a slight tremor in his hands. “If they catch me, I’m dead.”

“I’ll make sure that they won’t.”

Rolo seemed to brighten at that before he reined himself in. He nodded at them before getting up and walking over to part of the room that Kallen hadn’t checked yet. He knocked in a section of the wall and pulled out a large file. Rolo turned it over in his hands before holding it out. “Take it. There will be more when I find it.”

Lelouch crossed the room to take the file, meeting Rolo’s steady gaze. He nodded at the man before tucking the file away. “You bring me another one and I’ll give you a better safe house, somewhere where they’d never find you.”

That seemed to satisfy Rolo. The man nodded and turned around, starting to gather up all his files.

Lelouch retreated, not wanting to push. He shot a grin at Kallen, earning another roll of her eyes. He didn’t care that she was annoyed, it just proved that his recruiting strategy was sound. All he needed was the truth and they were take down Camelot.


	20. Gossamer

Suzaku wasn’t sure what he expected after being brought back to life, but the team that was assembling wasn’t anything like he had imagined.

There were more people in the villa than he expected, small groups that he remembered keeping tabs on when he had been a Round, Kallen’s friends from Area 11, a contact from a group in the EU. It was far more than the six that the Black Knights started at.

It felt different too. The new people had already worked within their own teams, and they still tended to stick together. His old team were the odd ones out. Kallen and Gino stuck close together, although Kallen had started drifting towards her friends from Area 11. Gino seemed to be drifting back towards the people that Lelouch had managed to convince to defect from Camelot. Nunnally was close to the all-female team from Britannia while Lelouch rarely left his office. The only one who was acting normally was C.C, and she was ignoring everyone.

Suzaku sighed and leaned on the railing, listening to the new people rushing around. He liked being close to where people were, it made the silence easier to deal with.

C.C. had promised him that he wouldn’t just drop dead, whatever she had done had woven Lelouch’s earlier command into his very core. As long as he had that imprinted in his brain, there would be no reason to worry about him dying. She had even commented that it might be impossible for him to die now.

He curled his fingers more tightly around the railing. He didn’t like that eventuality, because he had seen what it had done to C.C, and that was not an end that he wanted for himself. Besides, everyone that he cared for was in the world now. He couldn’t imagine continuing on for years, he could barely think of what he would do after they were done dismantling the corrupt Camelot.

Suzaku jumped when he felt footsteps coming down the hall. He looked over his shoulder, feeling foolish when he saw that it was just Lelouch. He had expected their leader to be in his office, holding another one of his endless meetings, but Lelouch looked like he had just woken up.

Suzaku scooted out of the way, expected Lelouch to walk past him a head down the stairs to start the next round of meetings. Instead, Lelouch stopped beside him, leaning on the railing.

He watched Lelouch carefully, surprised by the closeness. After Lelouch had gotten over the shock of seeing him back, he had gone out of his way to avoid Suzaku. Suzaku hadn’t known why, but it was easy to guess. It was unsettling enough to be the one brought back from the dead, but to be on the other side had to be just as uncomfortable.

He turned his head away, leaning heavily on the railing. Whatever their reasons to avoid him, it was easier to just let them be. Everyone was already treading carefully between the new members coming in and the observation by Camelot. The two knights assigned to them might have been removed, but there were still two people watching the villa at all times, although Suzaku had his suspicions about them. The woman and the man seemed too friendly with everyone to really be watching them as closely as they should. With nothing better to do, Suzaku just spent his days wandering about the house. C.C. had brought him back from the dead, but he was still acting like a ghost.

“It’s nice.”

Suzaku jumped when Lelouch spoke up. He glanced over, surprised to see Lelouch actually looking at him with an expression that might have been considered normal. There was no surprise, no wariness. The guilt was still there, but Suzaku was sure that Lelouch would never let that go. Lelouch liked carrying some emotions around to fan the flames of his anger.

Lelouch held his gaze for a moment before gesturing down at the people that were rushing around the front hall. “It’s nice to have people in the place again. It’s too quiet when it’s empty.”

Suzaku shrugged, not sure how to respond. He liked hearing the sounds of people around him, it was better than the silences in his head. He couldn’t exactly remember dying, but he felt like it was like those silences. Even with the noises he still felt removed from it all. It was hard to feel like they were a team when he was kept carefully on the sidelines of everything.

He heard Lelouch shift, seeing the man reach out for him. Lelouch stopped just short of touching him, hovering his hand over Suzaku’s before setting it carefully on the railing. The sides of their hands brushed against each other, the closest they had been since C.C. had brought him back to the villa.

Suzaku sighed and ducked his head, watching Alice and Sancia rush by, probably trying to organize their stuff while the other teams were moving in. He supposed that he could go down and offer his help, but some part of him didn’t want to sit through the refusal that was sure to follow.

“Suzaku…”

“It’s great, Lelouch. Really great.”

He was sure that he wasn’t convincing and Lelouch was sure to pick that up. The question was if Lelouch would ignore it and move on, or question it. Before Lelouch would have because he wanted his team to operate at their peak efficiency. They hadn’t had the time to be arguing among themselves back then.

“Suzaku…” Lelouch looked at him for a long moment before shaking his head. “You don’t mean that.”

Suzaku shrugged. It was impossible to lie to a telepath anyway, but he had no other answer. He heard Lelouch sigh, not sure how to bridge the gap between them. What Lelouch was forming was still too delicate, so he didn’t have time to work out whatever Suzaku was. Suzaku didn’t even want to know the answer to that. He wanted to remember himself as a hero, not something that could become a monster.

He jumped when Lelouch patted his shoulder. He lifted his head, watching as Lelouch moved around him and back down the stairs to talk with the rest of the team.

Suzaku reached up to touch the spot that Lelouch had touched, rubbing his shoulder. That was a first, a step forward from whatever limbo the two of them had been hovering in. He lowered his hand, looking down at where Lelouch was striding across the front hall snapping orders. He tilted his head to his side, feeling his breath catch when Lelouch turned to look at him. There was something familiar in the look that was thrown his way, something that almost made him smile.

It wasn’t much, but at least it was a start.


	21. Orange

Lelouch watched as the man made his way across the parking lot. He spared a glance at the door that Rolo had disappeared into before getting out of the car. Lelouch tugged his hat more firmly down over his head, giving himself a quick look in one of the wing mirrors. He looked like one of the drivers that brought in the special observation agents, just what he was going for. Lelouch glanced at his watch before setting off to intercept the man.

The man kept walking steadily, Lelouch almost worried that he was too caught up in whatever handler was talking to him. It wasn’t until the man got to his car that he spun around, Lelouch coming to an abrupt stop when he saw the gun aimed at him.

He stared down the barrel of the gun before smirking and tipping up his hat. “Is that how you greet the son of an old friend?”

“Lelouch.” Jeremiah practically whispered out his name, the man glancing around before holstering the gun. “Have you come for me like you came for Luciano?”

“Why? Did you do something to deserve it?”

Jeremiah shook his head, Lelouch taking note of his reaction. Jeremiah didn’t seem to be lying nor was there any indication in his mind even, with the strange mechanical gaps. Lelouch huffed and took a step back to look around the rest of the parking garage. He had Nina to tell him if there was anyone else coming in, but he had to check himself. He still wasn’t completely sure about Rolo and Nina’s loyalty, they had only been with the reformed Black Knights for a short time.

He looked back at Jeremiah when his sweep was done, picking up a bit of unease from the man. Jeremiah didn’t go for his gun, but he was refusing to look at him.

“I should apologize. I feel like I tricked you.”

“You didn’t know.”

“I should have. Camelot was connected to V.V, and after everything that he had done I should have suspected that his brother was up to something too.”

Lelouch wanted to say that it was fine, but the words caught in his throat. Everything was fine now, C.C. had worked her magic and Kallen had returned with more new recruits. Still, it had been a hard road to get there, and they still needed more people if they were going to take down Camelot like they needed to.

He gave Jeremiah his best steady look. “Do you want to make up for it?”

Lelouch was surprised by how eagerly Jeremiah nodded his head. He didn’t know what had tied Jeremiah to his mother, or why his mother had bothered to work with V.V. in the first place. All he knew was that Jeremiah would do anything for him because of his relation to Marianne, and that was enough for him at the moment.

He took a step forward, glad to see that Jeremiah leaned in. The man’s body language seemed to indicate that he wanted to help, but Lelouch kept his attention on Jeremiah’s mind as well, waiting for any indication of betrayal. “I need someone on the inside, something willing to help me take down Camelot and all involved.”

“And you would trust me?” Lelouch watched as Jeremiah reached up to touch the metal mask that rested on one half of his face. Jeremiah ran his fingers over the fake eye portion, his fingers curling against it before he jerked his hand away. “I have a score to settle with them as well. You can count on me.”

Lelouch gave a curt nod, glancing over his shoulder at the car he had emerged from. Rolo hadn’t given the signal, but he didn’t want to push the time that he had. He sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose, pushing back the realization that he would have to tell the rest of the team that he had recruited from Project Orange, something that none of them would like. As far as the others were concerned, they were better off without dealing with any of the experiments that had come out of the project. Suzaku was the only exception.

That was the least of his problems. The first thing he needed to do was test Jeremiah to make sure that he wasn’t just a plant.

“Then I need you to start getting me information about the security systems here, as well as the rotations for the Rounds.”

“Do want a heads up when they’re all out?”

“No. I want to know when they are all here.” Lelouch saw confusion flash across the man’s face, but he let it sit. He could feel Rolo moving back towards the exit door. He settled for a nod in Jeremiah’s direction. “I want what you find by the end of the week.”

“O-of course.”

Lelouch turned and walked away, throwing a wave over his shoulder. He was carefully to keep tabs of Jeremiah’s mind, feeling the confusion and surprise roll in the man’s mind. But there was nothing to indicate that Jeremiah was going to betray him. Lelouch didn’t believe that one instance would be enough to truly test Jeremiah. For all he knew, the man might decide that it was safer to ally himself with Camelot over the Black Knights. Then again, Jeremiah had never acted against him before, his bizarre attachment to Marianne seemed to prevent that.

Even knowing that, Lelouch kept a careful, light touch on Jeremiah’s mind, listening in on the man until Jeremiah was long out of range.


	22. Knife

Rolo played with the pen in his hands, studying the rest of the people in the room out of the corner of his eyes. Supposedly, he was looking over the plans for the main Camelot building, looking for gaps in the security system. Since Lelouch’s impromptu visit a few months back, the whole system had been gutted and redone to the very highest level of security, if the conferences were to be believed. Rolo was sure that the bravado was just to calm the people down after the death of Luciano Bradley had been announced. People were used to hearing about the Rounds retiring or dying like heroes on missions, but not being killed in their own building in Pendragon.

The pen in his hands dropped down onto the printed sheets of paper, Rolo slow to retrieve it. He was too busy looking at the others in the room.

No one on the team was a threat, he knew that, but he couldn’t help watching them. It was habit to try and figure out how things worked, how a group worked. If he got that, then he could slip into places and take out his mark. Rolo flipped his pen, moving it into position like he was going to lash out with it, but he caught himself at the last minute, returning it to a writing position.

That wasn’t his life now. Sneaking around and killing people was no longer his focus, not after he had gotten caught. If he reached back he could still feel the bump just under his hairline at the back of his neck. The transmitter still beamed out information back to Nina in Camelot, but all it was scrambled down at her end. So far, no one had noticed, but it was the most dangerous infiltration he had been a part of yet.

He flipped his pen around again, sighing as he leaned over the plans. So far, he couldn’t give the team anything new. The only parts of the new Camelot that he had been into was the garage, which led right into the holding rooms. For that, he had his own key card and passcode which would get him in and out of the room but nowhere else. Nina had her own card and codes that would let her into certain sections of the building, but nothing that would let them get to where they needed to go. For that, Lelouch would have to pull off a miracle, like getting into the heads of one of the Rounds themselves, but Rolo doubted that would happen. Since the Black Knights had started appearing on the scene again, the Rounds had taken even more steps to be avoid Lelouch’s powers.

The only avenue open to them that he could see was infiltration, someone unknown who could start low and move their way up through the ranks. It would take a while, but it was a low casualty plan, something that would satisfy Suzaku. Kallen would fume, but there was no other way to do it. Everyone in their group was well known to Camelot, either because they were former members or they were on Camelot’s watch list.

Rolo snorted and sat back in his chair, glancing over the plans. If the Black Knights really wanted to tear Camelot down, then they should have recruited smarter. Wanted vigilantes and run away members didn’t make a good infiltration team, which would be the only way to beat out the Rounds. With the entire force of Britannia behind them, there was no way to bully their way in, not unless they all had a death wish.

He looked up, surprised to see Lelouch coming his way. He had assumed that their leader would be holed up in his office for the rest of the day, working on whatever grand plan they were going to execute next. Rolo hadn’t heard of any more people being kidnapped, so it wasn’t a rescue mission. He didn’t think Lelouch would be pushing for more recruitment or raids, the last one in Area 8 had gone off without a hitch.

Lelouch slid into the chair across from him, absently leafing through a stack of papers. He glanced up at Rolo and held them up. “New intel from Nina and Orange.” If he noticed the way that Rolo frowned at the code name, he didn’t react to it. Lelouch picked out a few sheets of paper and slid them his way. “More information about the security system, but it’s what we already know.”

“We’re not getting in?” Rolo reached forward and pulled the papers towards him anyway. Maybe there was something in there that Lelouch missed. He glanced at a diagram of the upper level, completely with door codes and marked security cameras. He raised an eyebrow, surprised that there was someone up that high in Camelot. He glanced down at his own work and the slim progress that he’d made on it. “You have someone this high up?”

“I have a few people in there.” Rolo could feel the long look that Lelouch gave him, like he was considering if he could trust Rolo or not. “They’re all spread out.”

“But you have someone here.” He reached forward to point at one of the higher floors in the building. “So you don’t need Nina and me.”

“That’s not true. Nina’s brilliant at what she does and you…you seem to fit in more with us than with the Rounds. After all, they’ve made a point of not allowing people with powers in.”

Rolo twirled the pen in his fingers, feeling the temptation to extend his power if only just a little bit. Then again, he didn’t feel like being flat on his back for the next few days while his heart recovered. He shook his head, letting the pen drop back to the table. “So you don’t need me?”

The smug expression on Lelouch’s face wavered a moment, Rolo watching their leader carefully.

He had been warned by some of the new additions to the Black Knights that it was hard to get into the group. The originals were bound tightly together through years and fighting and the things that they had been through when Camelot had shown their hand. None of them talked about it, but that was enough for Rolo. 

He had seen plenty of agents who had gone through hell together while he had been actually working for Camelot. Those people tended to stick closer together and there were certainly no room for anyone else. Everyone else that came along merely drifted around the group.

Rolo watched as Lelouch blinked slowly before the man shook his head. Lelouch leaned forward, nudging some of the papers away from Rolo. “If that’s what you think than I haven’t made myself clear. I don’t need you for what you can tell me about Camelot, I need you for something more important. This isn’t going to be a fair fight, which means I need a secret weapon, and that’s you.”

“Why?”

“Your skill set makes you the best choice. The rest of us are well known but you blend in. No one will see you coming.”

Lelouch patted his hand on the papers before standing up and walking away, leaving Rolo to stare after him. Of all the answers that he had been expecting, that had none been one of them. He had expected to be put off or carefully steered to doing more work, anything to keep out of the careful circle that he had seen.

Then again, it was Lelouch. Even before he had defected, he had known that the man was dangerous, less so for his powers and more for his ability to talk people into doing anything. It had worked on him once, and Rolo was sure that it was working again. The dangerous part was the way that Lelouch seemed to genuinely mean what he was saying.

Rolo sighed and pulled the papers closer to him, staring at the printed words without really reading them.

Then again, if Lelouch was telling the truth, then the thought that he was a secret weapon was a heady one. He might only have access to the lower levels of the building, but Lelouch had spies in the other ones. The spies might get caught when their gambit was made, but no one would suspect Rolo to have anything to do with the Black Knights, he had no reason to.

He grinned to himself as he reclaimed his pen again. Rolo spun it between his fingers as he went back to looking through the security in the Camelot building. At least now he knew what he was looking for. He wasn’t reading all the reports to look for breaks for them to get in, he was memorizing the system to look for loopholes and routes that he could exploit.


	23. Heart

Suzaku was ghosting through the halls. It was the only description that came to mind when Lelouch watched Suzaku walk the halls of the villa. He made a point of doing it after everyone had gone to bed, just pacing the halls until he retired.

Lelouch sighed and leaned on the railing. He remembered the times when the villa didn’t seem to ever calm down with the six of them moving around. The only difference was that Suzaku seemed to start his pacing in the early morning hours when the whole place was silent. Lelouch wouldn’t have known if he hadn’t spent too much time in his own office, going over his plans over and over again.

He let one hand dangle over the railing, watching as Suzaku came to a stop in the middle of the main hall. Suzaku turned in a slow circle, Lelouch gave a lazy wave when Suzaku looked up at him, surprised by the smile that crossed Suzaku’s face. It was a slightly dopy expression that Lelouch hadn’t seen for a long while. He found himself returning the expression, slumping into a more relaxed position.

It had been a while since they’d had a moment of peace, although that was mostly his fault. Lelouch had kept himself buried in his work until he couldn’t keep his eyes open. Then again, the problem with Camelot had to be finished fast. They could only keep running from Camelot for so long, and Lelouch didn’t like their odds if Camelot did see through what they were doing. The uprisings in the Areas could only last for so long and Lelouch was not going to run the risk of losing their cover.

Doing his work so late had also had the unintended effect of keeping him away from Suzaku. He hadn’t wanted that to happen, not when he couldn’t shake the fear that Suzaku just might drop dead.

He didn’t dare voice his fears to Suzaku or C.C. The former would look just as frightened as he did and the latter would look offended at the suggestion. Lelouch was just waiting for the day that she snapped at him and asked if he wanted her to take Suzaku back.

He shivered at the idea, Lelouch closing his eyes for a moment. He didn’t want to consider that, not just for the part that Suzaku would play in their plan. Lelouch had gotten used to having all of the Black Knights around to the point when it didn’t feel right unless they were in residence in the villa.

“Lelouch.” He opened his eyes at the sound of his name, watching as Suzaku came around to the base of the stairs. Lelouch waved him off, not sure if he was glad that Suzaku didn’t listen. His accidental avoidance of Suzaku had another unintended effect, he didn’t know how to be around Suzaku easily anymore. Before, he didn’t have to worry about closing his eyes and seeing the image of Suzaku slumped on the ground, bleeding out. He swallowed and turned to face the stairs.

Suzaku hovered on the top step, Lelouch the one to close the distance between them. He bit back the first question that came to mind. Asking why Suzaku was up so late would just lead to another conversation that would lead to nowhere, and he was sick of those.

He reached out for Suzaku, sliding his fingers over Suzaku’s arm. He couldn’t help himself from curling his fingers around Suzaku’s wrist, pressing his fingertips against Suzaku’s pulse point. Lelouch counted out a few beats before Suzaku pulled his hand away. Lelouch gave Suzaku a surprised look, watching his friend shake his head.

“Come on.”

“What?”

Suzaku gave him a long look. “I haven’t been sleeping, and I know you haven’t been sleeping either. Come on.”

Suzaku tugged on his arm, Lelouch almost tempted to resist it. There were other things that he could be doing, even if he was half asleep. There was always the relentless press of time and the reminder that he was running out of it.

Suzaku tugged on his hand again, Lelouch not bothering to resist as they walked back towards the bedrooms. He stifled a yawn with his other hand, frowning when he heard Suzaku chuckle. The noise wasn’t worth replying to, not when he was sure that Suzaku would ignore whatever he said. It was dangerously close to the way it had been before, which would be a disappointment when Suzaku split off to go back to his own room.

Lelouch slowed down at they approached his room, surprised when Suzaku came to a stop. He leaned out, looking down the hall to the third door down. Suzaku had been using that room for months, ever since he had come back. Lelouch didn’t see a reason for him to stop, there hadn’t been any major turning points, at least not ones that he’d noticed.

He pulled his hand out of Suzaku’s, opening the door to his room. He intended to walk right in, but he was highly aware of Suzaku lingering just outside. Lelouch paused with his hand on the door, twisting to look at Suzaku. “I…”

The rest of the words died unsaid as Suzaku stepped forward. Lelouch shivered as Suzaku’s fingers brushed over his jaw. He had never been more grateful for Suzaku’s ability to read him.

Lelouch gave up on words, settling on tugging Suzaku through the door. They had never needed words for this, something that he was grateful for. He had been staring at and working with words all evening. With Suzaku involved, he was more than willing to set them aside for the rest of the night.


	24. Fantasy

Kallen sat back, staring at the piles of paper and plans that were spread out over the long table. She found her gaze drifting back to the Camelot building, picking out familiar rooms. She could even see her old office, labeled with the name of the Knight of Five. She felt strangely annoyed at the sight of a name other than hers. She hadn’t liked being stuck in the position of a Round, but she had earned that title. She had spent years fighting the things that the Rounds wouldn’t lower themselves to go up against.

She curled her fingers around the edge of the table, looking back up at where Lelouch presided over the head of it all like a prince. She caught the brief look of satisfaction on his face before Lelouch went back to a neutral expression. Kallen recognized it as the one that he used when he was waiting for someone to question his plan.

Kallen glanced around at the other teams, waiting for one of them to pipe up about the plan. They had been working together for a few months now, but it hadn’t quite been a joint effort. It was an alliance of three different groups, all working together for the same goal. Kallen looked over at Sancia, watching as the woman opened her mouth before shaking her head. So there was no argument from the Britannian group. She turned her attention to Tamaki, knowing that he was more likely to mouth off than Ohgi.

Tamaki sat back with his arms crossed, glancing at Lelouch before leaning across the table to prod Kallen’s arm. “This guy knows what he’s doing.”

Kallen heard Ohgi groan and someone else from Ohgi’s team slump down against the table. She just fixed Tamaki with a look, watching as he shrugged her off.

She didn’t get the time to snap back at him, Lelouch standing up. He nodded at all of them, the motion dismissing them all. The two teams immediately split off, probably to keep discussing what they would have to do. Kallen saw Rolo split off from where Villetta and Jeremiah were, hurrying over to where Nunnally was leaving with the rest of them. The two of them fell into a conversation, Kallen surprised at the friendliness that she saw between the two.

She hadn’t noticed that, she had been so caught up in recruiting and gathering information. It wasn’t like how the Black Knights had been before, there weren’t as many chances to be a team together. Strangely enough, Kallen found herself missing it.

Kallen trailed her hand over the back of the chairs, watching the unfamiliar patterns of the group splitting up. The only thing familiar was the way that Suzaku lingered at the door until Lelouch caught up with him, the two of them brushing up against each other as they walked away. Gino should have been waiting for her, trying to convince her to skip off of whatever duty she had been assigned to have some fun, but he was already gone from the room. C.C. had disappeared earlier than she had expected. All that was left was Ohgi’s group.

As if her thought had summoned him, Ohgi walked over beside her. Kallen managed to smile as he patted shoulder.

“You were right. This was a good thing to back.”

Kallen attempted a smile of her own. “Should have listened to me.”

“I should have, but,” Ohgi shrugged, “I’m overly cautious.”

“That’s why Naoto trusted you.”

“I don’t know why, they should have been yours.”

Kallen glanced over to where Suzaku and Lelouch were standing, the two of them talking over something. She smiled to herself, raising one shoulder in a shrug. “I’m was busy here.”

“That’s something to be proud of. You’re managing to help Naoto’s dream along.”

Kallen sucked in a quick breath, turning her head in the hopes that Ohgi wouldn’t notice it. It wasn’t that she hadn’t thought about her brother and his quest to get back Japan for their people, but there had been other things to worry about, the smaller steps along the way. Taking down Camelot would be another step in the right direction, but she found herself thinking about the rest of her team instead of the next step. Some part of her was overjoyed that they were back on the path they had been pushing for, but she also found herself wanted the plan to be finished.

Instead of looking forward to the completion of her brother’s plan, she found herself wishing for the old Black Knights back.


	25. Summer

Kallen let the energy swirl around her hands, flexing her fingers as she eyed the cans that she had set up along the wall. Most of them already had dents and scorch marks from when she had fired at them before. One looked like it was ready to fall apart. Kallen grinned to herself and aimed her next shot, centering it on the can. She took a deep breath, taking her time.

She practiced every spare moment she had. It had been something that Naoto insisted on. If good aim wasn’t second nature to her, then she would suffer when she really needed to hit something. As long as he kept up her practice then she would be good. With their final gambit coming up, Kallen didn’t want to miss.

Kallen let out her breath, flicking her fingers out towards the cans. Most of the blast hit the can she was aiming for, cutting it in two. She grinned at the two separate clangs as the can fell. There was a moment before a second can toppled over, Kallen frowning at the loose spread of the shot. She flexed her fingers slowly, pushing back the growing heat that she felt there.

“Tighten it up.” Kallen muttered the words to herself, shifting slightly to bring another can into view. It had always easier to fire off a general blast than to do anything focused. She shook out her hands again, getting her mind back in the right place. “Take your time. Aim and fire.”

Kallen held her position for a moment, gathering the energy in her hands. She glanced at the red cloud forming before making a conscious effort to pull it together. She gritted her teeth as she pulled the energy into a ball, holding it like that for a moment. She aimed again, breathing out before throwing it forward.

The ball knocked into the can, Kallen grinning when it was the only one that went over. She formed up two more balls, firing them in quick succession. Two more cans were toppled over, Kallen bouncing a bit in victory.

She glanced at the other five cans, getting ready to take them down in quick succession when she heard someone approaching her.

Kallen let the energy dissipate, turning around to see who was walking towards her. She had expected Gino, Lelouch or even Nunnally, so she was surprised to see C.C. squinting at the cans. The woman tipped her head to the side and shrugged. “You’re getting better.”

Kallen gave her a long look, surprised by the compliment. “It’s been at least three years.”

“You should have been getting better then.” C.C. walked over to the cans, flicking one with her finger. She didn’t look too surprised when it tipped over. She leaned over to watch it fall, Kallen hearing her laugh. “You’ve certainly gotten that one.”

“Want me to do it again?”

C.C. shook her head, moving away from the cans. “I’ve had enough of that.”

Kallen watched C.C. carefully, tempted to ask her what she meant, but Kallen kept her mouth shut. The last time she had asked a question she hadn’t quite understood the answer. Kallen still wasn’t sure if she had been messed with or not, and she wasn’t in the mood to unpack whatever C.C. was trying to tell her. That was something that she would leave to Lelouch.

She gathered a ball of energy in her hand, glancing at C.C. before sending the energy off at the can. She missed her throw, the ball glancing off the wall.

The contact made the wall shudder, Kallen wincing at the new scorch mark on the wall. She was sure that Nunnally never came to the back wall of the garden, the paths were too uneven for her wheelchair and there weren’t any flowers for the girl to nurture. Kallen was sure that wouldn’t stop Nunnally from extending her project out to the far reaches of the villa’s gardens for long. She would find the scorch mark then, and there would be no question of who had caused it. When that day came, Kallen would have to make sure that she was far away.

She glanced back at C.C, not surprised that the woman had taken a step back. C.C. scratched at the side of her neck before shrugging. “You hit something.”

Kallen huffed and stormed over to pick up her cans. She stacked most of them together, staring at the halved can before tucking it in with the others. She glanced over at C.C, hoisting her cans up. “You going to practice?”

The question was worth the almost annoyed look that C.C. gave her.

C.C. shrugged and jumped up to sit on the wall. “I’ve already had years of practice.”

Kallen never knew how to respond when C.C. said things like that. Some part of her still couldn’t believe that C.C. was as old as she said, then again, she had no reason to disbelieve her.

She settled for a shrug, tossing a can up into the air before catching it. “Suit yourself.”

Kallen had no idea what C.C. was doing, but she was more than happy to leave the woman to stare up at the sky. There were other things that she had to do, a whole list of things that Lelouch had passed on to her. 

She had Gino had compared lists earlier, commiserating over the fact that they seemed to be getting everything thrown on them. Then again, it was probably meant as a sign that they were the trusted ones. Kallen wasn’t sure she enjoyed that, she wanted to go back to working off the nerves that were bubbling up with every moment they got closer to their operation time.

She felt the heat rising in her hands, Kallen taking a deep breath and pushing the heat away. She didn’t want to burn herself out before they went into action. She didn’t need her hands numb because of the energy that she had been channeling, because then he would be worse than useless. After coming so far, Kallen was not about to back out now, not when they were so close to reaching their goal.


	26. Motion

Euphemia pressed her lips together as she listened to the basics of the law being read out. It had been one up for a debate for a while now, but she had missed out on the initial debates. She was sure that it had been part of the reason she had been kidnapped, so she couldn’t lead the protest against the law.

She fought against the urge to make a face as the Speaker of the Senate moved onto the next part of the summary. He had already covered the danger that vigilantes had posed to Pendragon with their constant fights and now he was swinging into how it was dangerous for the Areas. After all, it could only be the vigilantes who could have been encouraging the rebellions; the Areas had been completely peaceful before. Euphemia was sure that it would only be moments more before the speaker started talking about the dangerous Numbers that would come out of the whole affair. It was alright for the Britannians to develop powers, but Numbers couldn’t be encouraged.

Euphemia stared down at her copy of the law, the paper marked up all over with red marks. It was easy to drown out the sound of the speaker’s voice, Euphemia sitting still as she waited for the man to finish.

After what seemed like days, the man took a deep breath that ended on a cough, the usual signal that he was done. She looked up as the man lifted his head, giving the whole Senate a look over. The Speaker of the Senate cleared his throat, letting the book slam shut. “This is the law as written by Silas Marsden for the emperor himself. If anyone feels that this should be changed, speak now.”

Euphemia heard many in the Senate shifting, sure that most of her own allies had been cowed. She looked over to her right, watching as one of her allies shook their head. Euphemia glared back, hoping they would understand what she was trying to get across. The emperor might have tried to get her out of the way, but she wasn’t going to let him.

She stood up, hearing a few gasps as she glared down the speaker. “I make a motion to throw out this law completely.”

There were a few chuckles throughout the room, but most of them were still watching her carefully. Euphemia made a point of straightening her back, staring down the speaker.

The man coughed a few more times before giving her an indulgent smile. “Lady Euphemia has made a motion. Does anyone second it?”

Silence fell over the room, Euphemia feeling her stomach twist when she realized that no one was going to stand with her. She shot a look at her ally, surprised at the slow shake of the head that she was given. She hadn’t expected the emperor to win outright, not when she showed that she didn’t care about what he had done. She had thought that her allies would show some backbone.

The speaker coughed again. “Does anyone second Lady Euphemia’s motion?”

Euphemia was ready for the silence to descend again. She was so focused on the Senate that she jumped when the doors slammed open.

She spun around, watching in surprise at the five people that marched down the aisle. She stared at the man dressed in all black in a mask, before she tore her gaze away to look at the man standing in the front, surprised when he nodded at her. In her shock, Euphemia nodded back.

The man turned his attention to the Speaker of the Senate, making a sweeping gesture with his hand. “The Black Knights second the motion.”


	27. Evanesce

Rolo keyed the code into the door, quashing the urge to look around. He had to act like he belonged on the level just long enough for the code and keycard he had been given to work. So far, the agents had left him alone, but Rolo was sure that it was because they were all busy elsewhere.

The Rounds were all caught up in a meeting, save for the Knight of One. Bismarck had gone to the Senate house to meet with the emperor and the Senate on some of the laws coming up for a vote. It was one less person that they’d have to fight, which was good. Rolo knew that there were others on their side throughout the building, but it didn’t feel like enough.

He sucked in a quick breath at the series of beeps in his earpiece. That was Nina saying that everything was in position. Rolo played with his keycard, spinning it around in his fingers before nodding to himself. If they were in the clear, then there was no need to hesitate.

Rolo slipped the card into the reader, watching as the light changed to green. The reader made a soft noise, Rolo ignoring it as the door whooshed open.

He stepped into the room, looking at the command center. About a quarter of the people in the room were either knocked out or tied to chairs. A few of the latter jerked their heads around to look at him, Rolo guessing that they were trying to motion for him to help them but he ignored them. He turned towards the conference room, meeting Villetta’s gaze. She nodded at him, the two of them only have a moment of eye contact before Jeremiah kicked down the door.

The ten people in the room jumped, Rolo lifting his gun as he looked over all of them. About half of the Rounds looked like they were too shocked to act, but Nonnette jumped to her feet. She toppled into her chair a moment later when Rolo shot her in the shoulder. The others scattered to the far sides of the room, Rolo watching them work through the situation.

Monica was the next to move, the blonde woman taking a step forward. “What’s the meaning of this?”

“This is a takeover.” Rolo flinched when Tamaki spoke up, almost surprised that the group from Area 11 had made it through the building so quickly. Then again, Nina had probably taken the first chance that she had gotten to open all the doors.

He stepped to the side, keeping his gun trained on the Knight of Six, listening as the rest of the group filed in. A quick glanced towards the window, seeing the gleam of light off of a gun. Rolo didn’t know if that was Sancia or Alice, but it was good to know that they were covered on all sides.

As soon as the group from Area 11 filtered in, Rolo relaxed his stance slightly. There were at least two people covering every Round, which had to be enough. If the worst happened, then the only people that were free in the building were on their side. There would be no escape for anyone.

He rolled his shoulders, watching as Jeremiah walked over to rap his knuckles on the table. The man grinned at everyone in the room. “Good afternoon. We’ve come here to tell you that Camelot is under new leadership.” The Rounds started to chatter, Jeremiah raising his voice over them. “As such, we won’t need your services any longer. Please remain calm and no harm will come to you.”

Jeremiah stepped back, motioning for Villetta and two others to go out into the hall. A nod had Rolo sliding easily back into place that Jeremiah had vacated.

He gave the Rounds a serious look, raising his gun again. He didn’t want any of them to think of escaping. It would be hard enough to chase them through the building with their allies, but it would be a distraction that they didn’t need. They had to hold until the signal was given that meant that they downfall of Camelot and everything they had stood for was complete.


	28. Rainbow

Lelouch stared out into the crowd, watching as they shifted. He could tell exactly when they saw Euphemia step out of the royal palace, watching the slow roll as people started up a cheer. The sound made him smile, Lelouch turning to bow to Euphemia as she swept out on the balcony.

He was sure that he was the one of the only ones that saw Euphemia stumble over her hem, watching as she pulled her heavy gown out of the way. Lelouch looked down at the ground, waiting for Euphemia to reach the balcony before he looked up again.

By then, the crowd had gone silent, waiting for the first words of their newly crowned empress, and Euphemia didn’t disappoint.

She spread her arms, Lelouch sure that she was beaming down at the crowd as she started to speak. “My people, I want to thank  _you_  for this honor. Because, today, we celebrate a victory. It’s a victory over everything that held us in fear. The Areas are no longer in rebellion, instead we work cheerfully side by side. There will be no registration law to trap people, nor will there be kidnapping to keep people quiet. I am here to work with you and for you instead of against you.

“No longer will the people wait live in fear of the Knights of the Round and Camelot, for they are no more! Instead, we have the people who watch over us without reservation, without the need to inspire fear. We have our own knights now, knights who serve the people and fight for justice.”

What she said next was lost in the cheer of the crowd, Lelouch almost in awe of the sound. His final gambit hadn’t quite worked the way he had wanted, but Euphemia as empress wouldn’t be too bad, not with what he had found on her. It was a step in the right direction. Besides, he had overthrown the government once, he could do it again. Still, Lelouch didn’t think that he would need to do it, he would leave that up to someone else.

Euphemia was speaking again, but Lelouch couldn’t hear her over the crowd. He was sure that it didn’t matter what she was saying, Euphemia was just being her usual honest self, and the people loved her for it.

He took a step back, leaving the limelight to Euphemia. Lelouch intended to back away completely, but a hand caught his own.

Lelouch paused at the feeling of a glove sliding over his wrist, turning his head to look back into the blank expression of Suzaku’s mask. He resisted the urge to pull it off, because it shouldn’t have mattered anymore, but Suzaku had requested that his old persona remained dead. Suzaku seemed to believe that it was easier that way, but Lelouch had his own reservations. Surely it wouldn’t hurt for the people to see their old hero and it would make him feel better. He preferred to have Suzaku instead of the costume and the mask.

He shifted his hand slightly, giving Suzaku room to slip his fingers in between Lelouch’s. He got a gentle squeeze of his hand, Lelouch not sure if it was a reward for staying or a reminder to remain still; it was hard to tell with the mask Lelouch chose to take it as the latter, shifting to face Euphemia and listen as she continued to address her adoring people.


	29. Carnival

Suzaku started awake at the sound of a bell ringing. He stared into the darkness of his room before he recognized the pattern. It wasn’t theirs.

He sighed and let his head drop back to the pillow, shutting his eyes. The bell was summoning the team on night rotation, Sancia’s team if he remembered correctly. The Black Knights wouldn’t be on the night rotation for another two weeks, right after Ohgi’s team and the training team that they had going.

Suzaku sighed and pressed his face deeper into the pillow when he heard the bell go off again. It was the second reminder and nothing more, no one else would be called out unless Sancia’s team couldn’t handle the threat, but Suzaku had trouble remembering the last time that any of their teams had struggled with an enemy. 

It seemed that between the demise of Camelot and Project Orange, most of the worst had disappeared. Suzaku didn’t quite know where that left them, but he was too tired to care. All he knew was that the villa was still full of people moving around at all hours. 

Suzaku had almost expected all the different teams to move out, but they hadn’t. They had gotten themselves settled into all of the extra rooms in the villa, making the whole building echo with voices at all hours. It was better than when it had only been the six of them in the mansion, but it was taking some getting used to, especially with the bells going off at all hours when all he wanted to do was sleep.

Suzaku heard a grumble from in front of him, lifting his head slightly as Lelouch rolled over. He shifted his arm at the last minute so it wouldn’t get trapped under Lelouch.

Lelouch kept grumbling until his face was pressed against Suzaku’s chest, Suzaku feeling the sound vibrate against him. He felt Lelouch prod at his mind for a moment before the touch dropped away. Lelouch lifted his head slightly, giving him what Suzaku assumed was a sleepy glare.

“Rakshata has to hurry up on that other system. Can’t sleep with that damn bell.”

Suzaku pulled Lelouch close again. “Can’t sleep with you talking.”

If Lelouch had a reply, if was muffled and Suzaku didn’t pay attention to it. He didn’t think it mattered with the way that Lelouch’s breathing was evening out. He tugged the blankets more firmly around them, before letting his hand rest over Lelouch’s waist. Suzaku closed his eyes, letting himself drift off to sleep to the sounds of Sancia’s team rushing out to save Pendragon and the steady rhythm of Lelouch’s breathing.


End file.
